The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat #1-3
Author: Tsukiyo, Rui; Rui Tsukiyo; Reia
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Description: Anthology containing: The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat #1 The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat #2 The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat #3
Rights: Copyrights as per source stories

Contents
Cover
Insert
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue | The Assassin Reincarnates
Chapter 1 | The Assassin Chooses His Skills

Chapter 2 | The Assassin Learns the Family Creed

Chapter 3 | The Assassin Gets His Eyes
Chapter 4 | The Assassin Studies Magic
Chapter 5 | The Assassin Learns Spells
Chapter 6 | The Assassin Creates New Magic

Chapter 7 | The Assassin Utilizes Knowledge from His Previous World

Chapter 8 | The Assassin Promises to Meet Again

Chapter 9 | The Assassin Finds an Assistant

Chapter 10 | The Assassin Receives a Test

Chapter 11 | The Assassin Receives His Final Trial

Chapter 12 | The Assassin Departs
Chapter 13 | The Assassin Becomes a Merchant
Chapter 14 | The Assassin’s Little Sister
Chapter 15 | The Assassin’s New Product
Chapter 16 | The Assassin Achieves Success

Interlude | The Goddess’s Guidance and a Fated Encounter

Chapter 17 | The Assassin Returns Home

Chapter 18 | The Assassin Gathers Information

Chapter 19 | The Assassin’s First Assassination

Chapter 20 | The Assassin Makes a Decision

Chapter 21 | The Assassin Makes Haste

Chapter 22 | The Assassin Runs to His Princess

Chapter 23 | The Assassin Releases the God Spear

Epilogue | How Lugh Tuatha Dé Chooses to Live
Afterword
Yen Newsletter

Prologue | The Assassin Reincarnates

I was reclining comfortably in my seat on a passenger plane. Having finished my work overseas, I was on my way back to Japan.

Assassins exist only in fiction. I’m sure that’s what most people believe. Take a moment to really think about it, though.

There’s no quicker or more efficient means of disposing of an enemy than murder, and the more money and influence a person has, the more enemies they’ll need taken out of the picture. Where there is a demand for a service, a supply will rise to meet it…and that’s how assassins like me came to be.

“My last job went off without a hitch.” It was going to be my final day as an assassin. I had a retirement plan and everything.

I came to be known as the world’s greatest assassin, having been responsible for the sudden “death by illness” of numerous major figures, including several presidents. But in the end, even I was unable to defeat Father Time.

My next job was already lined up. I was going back to work as an instructor at the facility where I long ago learned the tricks of my particular trade.

Training assassins required an extreme degree of highly specialized knowledge and skill. Finding qualified personnel wasn’t easy. From that day forward, I was going to be turning promising youths into seasoned assassins like myself.

Or at least, that’s what I’d thought. Unfortunately, it seemed this job was nothing more than a fabrication designed to have me let down my guard.

The passenger plane shook violently with the sound of an explosion, then the aircraft rapidly began to lose altitude.

“I can understand the desire to dispose of a tool that has outlived its usefulness, but to go this far just to kill one person… It seems I’ve built up quite the reputation, haven’t I?”

Now I really felt old. I should’ve guessed this kind of thing would happen.

I stood up and pushed my way through the panicking passengers, hurrying toward the source of the sound. I hacked the security for the door to the cockpit and forced my way in. A few crew members tried to stop me on the way, but I kindly put them all to sleep.

When I entered the cockpit, I was greeted by the headless bodies of the pilot and copilot.

This is fine. Nothing I can’t handle , I told myself.

Assassination demands a great many skills. Piloting a passenger plane was no problem for me.

… Or at least, it wouldn’t have been a problem if the console hadn’t also been blown to smithereens along with the heads of the two pilots.

“I’ve taken the lives of a great many people in my day. I figured my time would come eventually, but I never imagined I’d have such an extravagant grave prepared.”

No matter the situation, I always tried my best to survive, even if the odds were stacked against me. That had always been my policy. I made use of all the knowledge and experience I’d gained over the years and pushed my mind to the limit in order to find a means of escape.

… There’s still something I can do. Saving the plane and its passengers was a tall order, but there was still a chance I could save myself.

“Well, this certainly came sooner than I expected. Their preparation was flawless… Looks like I’m done for.”

Outside the window, I could see a fighter jet armed with missiles quickly approaching.

The plane was currently flying over a metropolitan area. If it were to crash in the city, the damage would be catastrophic. It seemed that the plan was to break my plane into tiny fragments before that could happen.

By my estimation, the plane was supposed to reach its destination in about ten minutes, though that seemed less likely now.

The jet fired a missile.

It was an annoying complication. I would’ve been able to save myself if I only had the impending plane crash to worry about. The missile was an AIM-92 Stinger, an air-to-air model capable of so thoroughly destroying a passenger plane of this caliber that not even a scrap would remain.

… How unfortunate , I thought.

A lifetime of acting as an emotionless tool for my organization, and this was how I was being repaid. I was so loyal that I wouldn’t have hesitated to kill myself if given the order. Such a betrayal instilled doubts in my mind about my employers and my line of work for the first time in my life.

As death approached, I imagined that if I had another shot at life, I wouldn’t spend my days as someone else’s servant. I’d live only for myself. If I utilized my skills, knowledge, and experience purely for my own sake, then surely…

Holding on to that hope, I fought for my life until the very last second, using every means at my disposal.

When next I opened my eyes, I discovered I was in a temple. It appeared to be an ancient structure made of white stone. If I had to compare it to something, it’d be the Parthenon. There was no escaping that plane, and a part of me wondered if I’d dreamed the whole ordeal.

“Nope, that wasn’t a dream. Everything you just experienced was real. You were the world’s greatest assassin, but in a moment of carelessness, you allowed yourself to be assassinated. Ah-ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha!” A woman with white hair, dressed in an equally white tunic, burst out laughing. Actually, not only were her hair and clothes white, but so was her skin, her eyes—everything about her was that alabaster hue. To top it all off, she was strikingly beautiful.

Whatever she was, it was clear she wasn’t human. Her beauty was too flawless, as if she’d been carved by a master sculptor. The frank tone she was speaking with could not have been less appropriate, however.

“… Um, would you mind explaining what’s going on here?” I asked.

“You’re dead, and I summoned your soul to this place. Oh, I’m a goddess, by the way!” she explained.

“Do you bring every single dead person in for an idle chat? If that’s the case, then considering the number of people who die every day, there must be as many gods as there are stars in the sky. Either that or you have way too much free time. Or perhaps you had a special reason for summoning me here.”

“You got it on your last guess. Typically, souls are immediately wiped clean and recycled. We gods are very busy, after all.”

Throughout the conversation, I’d been trying to ascertain the validity of this odd woman’s statements by paying careful attention to the movements of her face, the intonation of her voice, her perspiration, and anything else that could’ve betrayed a lie. Unfortunately, everything about the way she carried herself was normal to the point of abnormality, almost like the so-called goddess knew what I was going to do before I did it and was having a bit of fun. It was unsettling, to say the least.

I knew how to play her game to a certain degree, but she was far superior, to a point where it extended beyond the capabilities of a human being. That’s what convinced me she really was who she claimed to be.

“If that’s the case, then may I ask why I was summoned here?”

“Wow, you’re a quick one. I’m giving you a choice. You can have your soul wiped clean so that you’ll be reborn as a brand-new person. You’ll be a cute little baby without any idea of who you used to be! Or, in exchange for taking on a little request of mine, I can transport your soul into another world and allow you to be reincarnated with the knowledge and experience from your previous life intact.”

So, if I went with the former option, I wouldn’t be me anymore. I’d become an entirely different person. The latter option would, in a sense, allow me to continue my current life. That seemed like a far more appealing proposition.

Spending my entire life as a weapon only to be betrayed and killed by my master in the end was an incredibly painful way to die. Starting again with my memories intact was a good chance for a do-over.

However, I could think of only one reason why I was handed this offer. The goddess’s “little request” was obvious, and I knew I wouldn’t like it.

“So, regarding the condition for the second option… Who do you want me to kill?”

“Ever the sharp one, aren’t you? That’ll make my job much easier. Though I’d expect nothing less from the soul I set my eyes on. I want you to assassinate a hero in a world of swords and magic. I need it done within eighteen years of your birth in that new world.”

“A world of swords and magic? A hero? Are you making this up?”

No sooner had I asked the question than knowledge of that world flooded into my mind. Instantly, I knew about the structure of that place, the art of “magic,” the culture, and the level of technological advancement. I even learned about the concept of “heroes,” such as the one I had been tasked with eliminating.

It was a world completely different from my own.

“This hero we’re talking about saved the world, didn’t he? Why does he need to be killed?” I asked.

“Sixteen years from now, after this hero defeats the Demon King and saves the world, he will use his power for his own selfish desires, plunging the world into chaos on a scale that will far surpass the reign of the Demon King. Then, two years after that, or eighteen years from now, that world will fall to complete ruin. I would like you to kill him before any of this comes to pass.”

“In other words, once the hero overthrows the Demon King, he’ll have outlived his usefulness,” I surmised. Somehow, I felt an affinity for that man who would become a villain.

“We would have left him alone if he didn’t cause any trouble, but he just had to go and make such a mess of things that I had to get involved. Ugh, how annoying!” the goddess whined.

This was a world where magic existed, and a good number of people possessed physical strength that far surpassed what was possible in my world. Their level of technology ranged from as far back as the Middle Ages to as recent as the mid-eighteenth century, though magic likely supplanted a lot of the more advanced science my world had.

My soul was to be transported there for the sole purpose of assassinating a hero.

“So I’m to dispose of this hero once he kills the Demon King and is no longer needed. Will I have to worry about suffering the same fate once I kill him?”

“Didn’t I just explain this? It’s only because he’s causing so much trouble that we have to get involved. Plus, you lack his power, and if you had the capability of obtaining it, I wouldn’t have chosen you in the first place.”

The goddess put a hand to my chin and gave me a bewitching smile.

“We chose an assassin because no soldier, knight, or sorcerer would’ve been able to kill the hero while staying within the bounds of normal human capability. Only a highly skilled assassin is capable of carrying out this job.”

“So I have to kill this hero, who happens to greatly exceed the strength of an ordinary man, while remaining a humble human myself.”

The reason for our difference in strength had been placed into my mind along with the information I was given earlier. The humans born in that world of swords and magic had a certain limitation placed on their abilities. From a very young age, heroes were able to break through that limitation and could become far more powerful and superior to other human beings.

The goddess, or whoever else was in charge, allowed only one hero to exist at a time.

Thus, if a hero went rogue and decided to rampage across the world, there’d be no one who could stop them. No other person could hope to best the hero in battle. That’s why this situation called for assassination.

“I understand the nature of this hero, more or less. He’s a monster. Given what I know, I’m sure I can kill him. However, I’m going to need abilities on the very high end of the human spectrum,” I said.

“Sure, I can help you out there. You’ll be equipped with the strongest possible specs a human can have, though still within reason. You will also be allowed to choose skills that would otherwise have been assigned to you at random,” the goddess explained.

Suddenly, countless skill options flooded my mind. In the world of swords and magic, people were assigned, at most, five random skills at birth. Being given the ability to choose freely from a seemingly infinite pool of skills was no small task.

Rather than simply choosing the most powerful skills, I thought it best to choose skills with strong compatibility. That way they’d add up to more than the sum of their parts.

“… You can’t choose the skills for me, can you?” I asked.

“Aw, is critical thinking not your strong suit? It would be thrilling to watch you struggle to complete the job with the weakest skills I could possibly give you, but… How about this? I’ll give you three days to mull it over, so choose wisely. Of course, that is only on the condition that you accept my request.”

“I have a number of questions I’d like to ask first. From what I’ve gleaned, it seems you’re not able to interfere excessively in worldly matters, but isn’t that exactly what you’re doing right now by sending my soul to this other world to do your dirty work?”

“You’re not wrong. Occasionally, however, it just so happens that a world is short on souls and needs an influx from another world. Then there are cases where, coincidentally , the soul-cleansing process goes wrong and memories and knowledge are accidentally left intact, and coincidentally , that person is born with great strength and powerful skills. That is the limit to which we can interfere. Unfortunately, this hero situation isn’t one where the world can be saved through conventional means.”

Evidently, the goddess was doing the most she could within her limited framework.

“Next question. I have to kill him within eighteen years, right? Can I just off him as soon as I’m ready?”

“Ah, no, that won’t do. Wait until he kills the Demon King, at least. Only the hero is capable of defeating the Demon King, so offing him before he gets the chance would doom the world in a different way.”

“I see. How many other souls have you lured here and enticed with this same proposition?”

It was hard to imagine I’d be the only person being sent to the world of swords and magic with their memories intact in order to try to assassinate the hero. If I were in the goddess’s position, I would try to up my chances by placing as many pieces on the board as I possibly could.

“Oh, now that’s a shrewd question. I can see how you were able to become your world’s most notorious assassin… The answer is none. For now, it’s just you. Even if I am a goddess, there’s no way I can pass off multiple assassins being reincarnated with all with their memories intact as pure coincidence.”

For now, she says. I made a note of that remark.

“Last question. Which is more important to you: saving the world or killing the hero? If it’s the former, then in the event that an opportunity to save the world without killing the hero presents itself, would that be good enough?”

“Saving the world is the primary goal, of course. Yes, if there was a way to secure a bright future for the world that didn’t involve the hero’s death, then that would be fine… If you really think you can make that happen, you’re more than welcome to try,” the goddess said with an unnerving smile.

“Got it. I accept your request. I’ll be reincarnated into the world of swords and magic. I do have one request of my own, however. I would prefer to be born into a family of moderate wealth. I’ll need an environment where I can train to the fullest.”

“Ah, there’s no need to worry about that. You’re being reincarnated as the scion of House Tuatha Dé. They’re that world’s greatest family of assassins. You will have every resource you need available to you, so please work hard to raise your abilities to the maximum of human potential. Once you choose your skills, I will transfer your soul to your new world.”

The goddess disappeared, and I broke into a bit of laughter. I couldn’t believe that even after being given a chance at a second life, I was still going to be stuck as an assassin.

I’d sworn to myself that if I got a second shot at life, I would live only for myself. Now I actually was getting another chance, with my memories of my past life intact no less, but I’d be a tool right from the get-go. The irony wasn’t lost on me…

Still, I wasn’t about to complain. I’d been given eighteen years to kill a single person, and I’d get to continue living as myself despite having already died.

This time, I promised to live for myself and find happiness.

Chapter 1 | The Assassin Chooses His Skills

My first day was spent sorting through all the skills that had been shoved into my mind.

It was critical that I had not only a deep understanding of the skills themselves but also of the world I was going to be reborn into.

The total number of skills was absurd. To be exact, there were 123,851.

In the world of swords and magic, people were assigned skills randomly at birth. There were many skills that didn’t seem to have any practical uses: Animal Cry, Dishwashing, Speedy Dressing, and Cross-dressing, to name a few.

Skills were divided into five ranks: S, A, B, C, and D, and I could choose only one from each.

S: 1/100,000,000 chance
A: 1/1,000,000 chance
B: 1/10,000 chance
C: 1/100 chance
D: 1/1 chance

The likelihood of being given a skill differed depending on the rank. Theoretically, it was possible to be born with a skill from every rank. But the odds of getting an S-Rank skill alone were one in one hundred million. That meant the probability of being born with a skill from all five ranks was…

…one in one hundred quintillion.

Considering that, I felt extremely fortunate to be given the privilege of choosing my skills. Most people were born with only a single D-Rank skill.

I decided that the best way to choose my skills would be to select a skill from the most powerful category, S Rank, and then select subsequent skills that would best complement it.

“As one would expect given such low odds, each of the S-Rank skills is a force to be reckoned with,” I muttered.

Merely possessing an S-Rank skill was enough to put someone among the strongest people in the world.

Magic Blade Summon: Allows the user to summon and wield a magic blade that adjusts to the user’s strength.

This one seemed a little plain at first, but the magic blade was outrageously powerful. You could cleave a mountain in half with this skill.

Holy Vigor: Envelops the user in a shining golden aura that substantially increases strength, defense, and agility.

The word substantially was a bit vague, but I was willing to bet that even an infant could take down a tank with their bare hands using this skill. It had great versatility. If I was unsure of what skill to pick, this one seemed like a solid choice.

Seal of Subordination: Enables the user to control their opponent by placing a mark on the target’s forehead.

With this skill, you could create your own personal army of people under your complete control. There was a catch, however. When the mark is made, the target has the chance to resist its influence by using their mana. Simply put, the user’s mana needs to be greater than the target’s.

Monster Creation: Allows the user to create monsters using a great variety of materials, and command them in battle.

This skill would allow you to create the monster army of your dreams. It seemed monsters were primarily made using corpses and magical stones. I could think of countless uses for this one.

These were just a few of the S-Rank skills available to me.

When choosing my skill, the first thing I needed to confirm was that I would have enough firepower. The hero far surpassed all standards of human strength, so even if I found him in a defenseless situation, I’d no doubt lack the necessary strength to even put a scratch on him. This meant I’d need to make sure I had the ability to kill him with a single strike to some vital point.

My chosen skill was also going to need a great deal of versatility. Any number of unexpected developments could occur during my attempt to assassinate the hero. Flexibility would be required if I was to recover from unforeseen circumstances and carry out my mission.

Taking all of that into consideration, there was no better choice for my S-Rank skill than Rapid Recovery.

Rapid Recovery: Increases the recovery rate of stamina, mana, healing, etc. Recovery rate is increased by a factor of one hundred. This multiplier can be further increased with training.

At first glance, this ability didn’t seem all that impressive, but he who can run the farthest will always survive. Being able to easily replenish your mana, which seemed to be the closest equivalent in that world to reloading a gun, was also attractive. Plus, it could be used to recover quickly from illness or injury.

I’d also be able to function on very little sleep, and my stamina recovery rate would allow me to train for extended periods of time. After considering the rules of my new world, an accelerated rate of recovery seemed best.

If the goddess hadn’t given me a rundown of the world I was headed to, I doubt I would’ve chosen this skill.

“This is easily the best choice for my A-Rank skill,” I said.

Spell Weaver: Grants the ability to create new spells.

In the world of swords and magic, spells were magical abilities bestowed upon people by the gods. There were only about one hundred standard god-given skills that could be used.

However, Spell Weaver allowed me to make my own spells, allowing for infinite possibilities. Figuring that I’d be able to use my world’s superior knowledge of science, I reasoned that I’d make great use of this skill.

“After choosing Rapid Recovery, this one’s a no-brainer for my B-rank skill.”

Limitless Growth: Enables one to break through natural limitations.

While this skill sounded really strong, it was pointless on its own. Normally, removing growth limits would be meaningless. Limits are often so high that most people don’t reach them even if they spend their entire lives training. However, it formed an excellent combination with the inexhaustible supply of stamina afforded by Rapid Recovery.

For my C-Rank skill, I prioritized versatility and chose Martial Arts.

Martial Arts: Grants superb hand-to-hand combat capability and heightened reflexes.

This skill had inferior strength compared to weapon-specific skills such as Sword Arts or Spear Arts. But as an assassin, I already knew how to handle just about any type of weapon, so martial arts seemed like the best choice for me. I had no reason to choose a skill that limited myself to a particular weapon.

“I’m not sure the gods are aware this D-Rank skill even exists.”

For my D Rank, I decided to go with a rather amusing skill. It wasn’t particularly strong, but its effectiveness could vary greatly depending on how I used it. While all outward appearances pointed to it being boring, I was confident it would become my trump card.

In addition to skills, I also needed to choose my elemental affinity, which determined what kind of magic I could cast.

In the world of swords and magic, people were born with one elemental affinity; on rare occasions, a person could be born with two. There were four basic elemental affinities: earth, fire, wind, and water. These were joined by a pair of rarer elemental affinities: light and dark.

Spells were awarded by the gods after repeated use of your elemental affinity.

The elemental affinity I went with was Total Affinity.

Total Affinity allowed you to use all four of the basic elemental affinities, but neither of the rarer ones. This wasn’t without a drawback, however. As a trade-off for being able to use so many kinds of magic, the improvement rate for each of them was halved.

“If my improvement rate is cut in half, then I’ll just train twice as hard. That shouldn’t be a problem, since my recovery rate is increased a hundredfold.”

I decided the merit of being able to use four elements outweighed the demerit of a slower growth rate.

After only two days into my allotted time, I’d chosen all my skills and my elemental affinity, but I decided not to tell the goddess yet. It was better to spend any time I had left considering my choices and looking over all the skills to see if there was a better combination.

After spending my final day thinking through my options, I decided to stick with what I’d chosen the previous day.

I’d use Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth to improve my fundamental abilities. Martial Arts would sharpen my movements. Spell Weaver and Total Affinity would greatly increase the tools at my disposal, and my D-Rank skill would be my ace in the hole.

“You seem to have found a combination that you are satisfied with,” the goddess declared, appearing before me.

“Yep, this is the best I could come up with.”

“Huh, you chose Rapid Recovery for your S-Rank skill. A bit dull, isn’t it? Same goes for your A Rank. I’d forgotten that D-Rank skill even exists… Humans truly are fascinating creatures.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Far from it. I’m praising you. If you’d simply chosen the strongest skills without much thought, you would’ve had no chance of defeating the hero. He’s got more than thirty skills after all.”

On top of abnormal physical strength and mana, a hero was also born with thirty skills from the S and A Ranks. Of those thirty, a minimum of five were S Rank. Given the ridiculous strength of those skills, I could certainly see why defeating the hero in battle was borderline impossible.

With enough training and careful preparation, however, assassination seemed doable.

I chose my skills specifically for the purpose of killing the hero, whose many abilities had granted him monstrous strength from birth.

“Okay, time for your reincarnation. Full disclosure: It’s going to be awkward for a while. You’re going to have to live as a baby while retaining your current knowledge and personality. Just try to bear it, okay? I’m sure being born into the Tuatha Dé clan of assassins will be anything but boring. Your mother is beautiful, you know. And thank goodness for that! I can only imagine how uncomfortable it would have been if you made a repulsed face every time you had to breastfeed! That’d be a pretty nasty shock for any parent. Oh, one more warning. I recommend you change your manner of speech. It’ll be off-putting to hear a child speak the way you do now.”

Without waiting for my reply, the goddess snapped her fingers.

My body transformed into particles of light.

I was about to begin a new life.

Hopefully, the Tuatha Dé clan of assassins would provide me with everything I needed to prepare.

Chapter 2 | The Assassin Learns the Family Creed

I felt someone wipe my body and wrap me in a soft blanket.

Oh yeah. The goddess said I should be careful with my vernacular to avoid making people uncomfortable. I’ll keep that in mind.

I tried to move, but I was even weaker than I’d expected.

When I opened my eyes, I found my vision extremely blurry. The world steadily came into focus.

I was in the arms of a beautiful silver-haired woman. She’d been thumping me on the back for the last few minutes in order to make me cry. I felt something welling up inside me. Abandoning myself to the impulse, I began to cry violently.

The woman held me tight.

“My precious little Lugh.”

Evidently that was to be my name.

My neck movement was still fairly restricted, so I couldn’t get a good look at my surroundings, but given the health of my mother, the quality of the blanket, and the furnishings within my field of vision, I could guess that I’d been born into a wealthy family.

Come to think of it, the language of this world should be entirely different, right? How am I able to understand it? I wondered.

With superb timing, words from the goddess echoed in my mind, saying, “This is a special gift just for today so you can get your bearings. Make sure you study hard and learn the language!”

I heard footsteps approaching, and a number of people entered the room.

“How’s the child, Esri?” one voice asked.

“He’s a healthy boy… Cian, are we going to bring this child into the clan, too?”

“This country needs House Tuatha Dé. With our skill as assassins, we are the only ones who can remove the malignant tumors that plague our land.”

“… I don’t like it. I’m terrified of losing him like we lost Ruff.”

“We’ll raise him to be strong so that doesn’t happen. We won’t repeat the same mistakes. Trust me, Esri, I don’t want to lose a second child, either.”

This man, Cian, spoke sternly in a voice that brooked no argument, but there was a tangible hint of warmth behind his words.

It sounds like Ruff was either my brother or my sister. Apparently, they’d died in the family line of work.

Even so, there were plenty of benefits to being born into a family with such a dangerous profession.

All the tricks and knowledge I gained as an assassin in my previous life were for killing the people of that world, where magic didn’t exist. The Tuatha Dé clan, on the other hand, had been operating in the world of swords and magic for generations. They’d have the know-how I needed to become an assassin here.

Noble status meant I’d enjoy all the things that came with considerable wealth, and I’d have no trouble finding enough time to train.

“Very well. I’ll abide by your decision. But know that if I lose this child, I don’t think I’ll be able to bear the pain again…”

“I swear to you, I will not let Lugh die.”

Still hugging me tight, my mother kissed my father.

Then they both leaned in to kiss me.

When I’d heard I was going to be born into a clan of assassins, I didn’t exactly expect such a wholesome family environment. My parents seemed to genuinely love me.

As far back as I could remember, I’d only ever shown affection as an act. It was merely a simple bargaining tool to help with my work.

I wondered why my parents’ affection made me feel so strange… Perhaps this was what true love felt like?

Living here may give me a chance to study the concept of love.

Assassins didn’t need love, but I knew it’d be essential if I was to live as a person and not a tool.

Before I knew it, five years had passed since my reincarnation.

Learning how to read and write took a long time because of my youth. Two of those years were spent waiting for my brain to develop enough for me to be able to study at all. Still, my rate of learning was extraordinarily quick for a child my age.

As a result, my parents and the family’s servants were all beside themselves in shock at my progress. To them, I must have seemed like a prodigy. At first, I tried to slow my development so that others wouldn’t grow suspicious of me, but acting mature for my age seemed to delight those around me, so after a while, I stopped holding back.

I did make sure my speech and mannerisms matched those appropriate for a child.

I played the part of a perfect son for my parents to ensure an ideal training environment. Surprisingly, I came to truly love them over time, and I genuinely wanted to make them happy.

Around the time I turned five, the number of things I could do greatly increased.

Rapid Recovery was a boon.

My young body tired easily, but because I quickly recovered from fatigue, I could stay active for long periods of time. As my muscles continued to develop, my strength far surpassed that of others my age.

On one particular day, I found myself in the library. This great study was truly impressive, even by the standards of nobles. Collected on its shelves were innumerable records gathered by the family as well as many more volumes amassed from every corner of the world. Just about anything I could have wanted to learn was written in one of the books in that library.

“My new family has a lot more red in their ledger than I’d expected,” I muttered.

House Tuatha Dé was a noble house of the kingdom of Alvan—itself one of the four major kingdoms on the continent—and the head of the house claimed the rank of baron.

Baron was one of the lowest ranks among nobles, and as such, they didn’t hold much land. But despite that, Tuatha Dé was extremely wealthy.

On the surface, House Tuatha Dé was a respected family that possessed the best medical knowledge in the kingdom. It was well known that they’d used their superior curative methods to earn themselves great rewards and the favor of the royal family as well as many other lauded houses.

It was hidden from the public eye, however, that the Tuatha Dé clan headed a group of assassins that carried out requests for the royal family and a certain dukedom. They used murder as a tool to remove those who had become a liability for the country.

Life and death. With control over both, House Tuatha Dé had come to possess great wealth and political influence, despite their outward appearance being rather humble.

“… I have an impressive heritage. Successfully operating as a family of killers for seven generations is no small feat.”

What’s more, they had done so while holding on to a secret that would flip the country on its head if it were to ever come to light.

The kingdom would probably jump at the chance to dispose of House Tuatha Dé if it meant the public would never learn of the arrangement it shared with the royal family. It was likely that the Tuatha Dé lineage held secrets that prevented such a thing from happening.

“All right, that seems like enough for today.” Right as I closed the book, there was a knock at the door.

“Master Lugh, my lord wishes to see you,” someone called.

That time already, is it? I thought.

From early childhood, members of the Tuatha Dé clan were given training comprised of magical drills as well as regular physical exercise adjusted for one’s current strength. It was a very efficient training regimen.

However, once you turned five, the real training began, and the difficulty was upped significantly. I did my best to learn what I could from my father. As the head of the clan, he was as good a teacher as I could’ve asked for.

On that day, it seemed we were using an underground facility for training. Entry into that place was normally forbidden.

“Lugh, from this day forth, I am going to begin sharing with you the secrets of our unrivaled medical and assassination knowledge. But first, repeat to me the family creed.”

“The Tuatha Dé clan’s skills are only to be used to ensure the prosperity of the kingdom,” I parroted.

“How does our medical technology benefit the country?”

“By saving the lives of major figures.”

“That’s exactly right. Our family has little political power. However, if we can save the lives of those above us, they will be able to make our country a better place. Next question. For what purpose does the Tuatha Dé clan carry out assassinations?”

“To eliminate those who have become an unhealthy presence in our lands. We remove people who are of foul mind in order to prevent them from causing excess damage.”

Without falter, I recited the Tuatha Dé family principles that my father had repeated to me countless times.

We existed to keep those who were beneficial to our country alive, and we killed those who would cause harm. Our family brought prosperity to the country through our control over life and death.

“Right again,” said Father. “If, for example, a noble was to go mad with ambition and start a rebellion, even if such an uprising fell, the toll it would take would be felt throughout the kingdom. Our fellow countrymen would be made to fight and kill each other. However, we have the ability to prevent such a situation from occurring before a single commoner dies. No matter how cunning a person is, no matter how above the law they may seem, they die at our hand just as sure as any other.”

The blade of the Tuatha Dé clan was most commonly turned toward the nobles of this country.

In the Alvanian Kingdom, the nobility had significant sway in matters of the court. With that power, they were often able to escape punishment. They’d built such a safety net for themselves that even the royal family had trouble going after them. However, all the political power in the world couldn’t save a man with a dagger in his throat. Such was their fate when the Tuatha Dé clan was called upon to dispose of them.

As my more intense training was finally about to begin, it was from then on that I would gain the strength needed to fulfill my family’s long-standing duty.

“Lugh, in what way are martial artists similar to doctors?” asked my father.

“Hmm. In order to efficiently best a person in combat, you need to understand the human body.”

Martial artists had a good understanding of anatomy. Such knowledge allowed them precise control over their movements and gave them the information necessary to aim for an opponent’s weak points to quickly subdue them.

“Very good. From my point of view, though, the techniques of martial artists are mere child’s play. They don’t have a thorough enough understanding of the human body. We Tuatha Dé are different. No one knows how to end a person’s life more efficiently than a doctor.”

My father came to stop in front of a massive dungeon full of prisoners.

“These are prisoners both native and foreign. All have been sentenced to death and were therefore offered to the Tuatha Dé clan as human subjects,” he explained.

“I see. No one will care if we kill these people. I can’t imagine a more useful resource than human subjects, both for medical study and for assassination.”

Truly, my family was impressive. They had used the study of medicine to improve the killing arts as well. There was no more efficient way to study both how to save lives and how to end them than by experimenting on actual living people.

Whether they’d admit it or not, I’m sure the doctors in my previous world would feel a pang of jealousy were they to hear about this. I’m sure they would like to test new medicines and surgeries on people, but they have no choice but to use guinea pigs instead. If doctors were able to use living humans for all of their experiments, medicine would be hundreds of years more advanced.

“… You don’t seem fazed by this in the slightest. I was terrified when I was brought here at your age. I even cursed my own father’s name,” said Cian.

“I do feel some reluctance, but it makes sense to me from a logical standpoint,” I replied.

“You truly are a gifted boy. To think you already possess this level of logic and reason at such a young age. As your father, I’m looking forward to seeing the kind of man you become. To commemorate this event, the task for your first lesson will be to commit murder. I would like you to kill five people. Take this knife. I’ll leave the method up to you, so kill them however you like. They’ve all been administered a muscle relaxant, so they won’t be able to put up a fight. But before you begin, I have one more question. Why do you think I’m asking you to do this?”

All I had to do was off a few people who couldn’t even fight back. Even at the age of five, that was fairly easy with a knife in my hand. I wondered if perhaps my father wanted me to memorize efficient killing techniques, but that didn’t seem like the answer.

“To get used to killing? You want me to kill people for practice so I don’t hesitate when it comes to the real thing,” I answered.

“Correct. Humans are extremely reluctant to take the lives of others. This resistance to killing is so great that soldiers sent to war will often hesitate in eliminating their targets. An acquaintance of mine in the army once told me that only one in three people are able to do what needs to be done on their first campaign.”

“Understood. I’ll get used to killing now to avoid hesitating during my first assassination.”

Without delay, I moved toward the many jailed criminals who’d been condemned to death.

“Before I kill them, I have a question,” I said.

“Go ahead,” my father urged.

“Why did you raise me to be hesitant to kill? The picture books that Mother reads to me all speak of the preciousness of life, and you’ve taught me to ‘love thy neighbor.’ These emotions will only distract from my job,” I explained.

In my previous life, my organization taught me that human lives were meaningless. As a result, I’d never once hesitated to take lives, nor had I ever felt guilty about it.

As if in opposition of their very profession, the Tuatha Dé family had raised me to hold virtuous ideals and keep a wholesome heart. These were both new to me, as I’d lacked them in my previous life.

I couldn’t help but worry that such feelings and ideals would only serve to dull my inner blade.

“If you lack a normal human value system, you’ll be incapable of understanding how other people think,” my father replied. “Knowing how to think and behave like a normal person is an essential weapon for an assassin. Also, never forget that we are people first and foremost, not tools. We don’t follow orders blindly. Only accept a job after you are sure it is in our nation’s best interest. I want you to keep that in mind. I’m raising you to become a capable assassin who can do what needs to be done, but above all else, I want you to have a heart,” Cian detailed.

“I half get it and half don’t. I’ll have to think about that,” I said in reply.

The warmth that would dull my mind would also make me stronger somehow. It seemed illogical, and yet, I could already feel changes within myself. Surely my father’s words would help me be happy. After all, I was going to live as a person this time, not a weapon.

All right, time to do what I have to do.

For the first time, I felt hesitation and guilt over killing, but even so, I didn’t run away.

This was an essential step to begin my life as Lugh Tuatha Dé.

Chapter 3 | The Assassin Gets His Eyes

By the time I was seven, my physical strength had increased significantly thanks to my father’s training regimen and my own personal practice. The improved stamina provided by Rapid Recovery had helped me last longer at both.

Cian had discovered the presence of my Rapid Recovery skill during one of my regular medical examinations and had been assigning me extra strength drills that took its effects into account.

One day, I was sent to a mountain within our territory for a mission where I would practice hunting.

While called “hunting,” that was not to imply the purpose was simply to gather food. Trekking through the dangerous terrain would help hone my stamina and agility, and through hunting, I was to sharpen my techniques of pursuit and stealth and my ability to kill quickly.

Beasts had much sharper senses than humans. If I was able to sneak up on a wild animal and kill it in a single strike, then assassinating a human would surely be a piece of cake in comparison.

The mountain itself was free of human development. As such, there were no roads. Wading through the thick, overgrown grass was a trial in itself.

Having set a route, I carefully examined the ground for the faintest sign of potential prey.

“Looks like I’ve found my target for the day.”

Rabbit droppings—and fresh, at that. There were also footprints that led through the grass. At a glance, I could tell they belonged to an Alvanian rabbit, which are known as arte rabbits. They’re big enough to consume large dogs if given the chance.

I dashed swiftly through the trees, cloaking myself in mana and becoming as quick as the wind. I still didn’t know how to use magic, but I had been studying how to manipulate mana.

About halfway to my prey, I jumped into a tree and began to leap from branch to branch. Normally, they would’ve broken under my weight, but my use of mana kept me light enough that such a thing didn’t happen.

It was a nice feeling to manipulate mana as easily as breathing.

In only a few moments, I sighted my prey. Roughly thirty meters ahead, a massive rabbit was digging up some yams and having a feast.

With me situated downwind, the creature wouldn’t pick up on my scent. Rabbits had excellent hearing, however, so it was sure to notice me if I got any closer.

Taking care not to do anything that would give myself away, I hung upside down with my legs hooked over a branch I had been perching on and drew the bow that was slung over my back.

The custom-built bowstring was strung so tight that even adults would’ve had difficulty drawing it back. This was a weapon that required enhanced physical ability.

I released the arrow, and it immediately found purchase. I pierced the large rabbit’s head in a single shot, killing it instantly.

“All right, that concludes this morning’s training.”

I leaped down from the tree and approached the animal’s corpse. After draining the blood and butchering the body, I covered the pieces I wanted in tree bark and placed them in the basket on my back.

On the way home, I also gathered some berries, herbs, and mushrooms.

“Come oooooon, Lugh, won’t you let me do the cooking today?”

“You promised to let me cook on days when I hunt. Please have a seat, Mother.”

After I returned to the estate, I headed straight for the kitchen and began to prepare lunch using the rabbit I’d butchered this morning.

Not only did my meal promise to be delicious, but it would also help me grow stronger. In order to build a tough physique, I needed to understand nutritional science and take great care with what I ate. Back in my old world, athletes were often given a personal nutritionist from a young age for that very reason.

As advanced as House Tuatha Dé was in many fields of study, their understanding of nutritional science was rather lacking. This was why I tried to cook for myself at least once every few days to ensure I was getting the balanced diet I needed.

Normally, I did my best to obediently do as my mother, Esri, said, but I refused to concede to her this time. I was cooking for my own benefit after all.

Building a strong body was my number one priority. No matter how skilled I became, it wouldn’t mean much if I didn’t have the proper power to back it up.

“Boooo, that’s not fair.” My mother pouted, puffing out her cheeks. As I was trying to think of a response, my father walked into the room.

“Esri, it’s no trouble if Lugh wants to cook this time, is it? Lately, I’ve been starting to think he’s just as promising a chef as he is an assassin. I’m sure whatever he makes will be good. After all, it’s thanks to your wonderful teaching that he’s become so acquainted with the kitchen in the first place,” he said.

“It’s not the food I’m worried about. My mouth is watering already just thinking about how good it will be. As his mother, it fills me with pride that our little Lugh is such a skilled cook. The problem is all his brilliant ideas are putting my cooking to shame,” Esri responded, glaring daggers at me.

“Mother, you’re giving me too much credit. I still have a ways to go before my cooking catches up to yours,” I said.

“Oh-ho, seems he’s not just skilled as a chef but also as a flatterer!” My father guffawed.

“Oh, enough, Cian!” Mother snapped.

This was the scene of a truly happy family. Mother always got this way, and when Father wasn’t working or training, he was always smiling and cracking jokes.

At times, my father even got so cheery that you couldn’t see a hint of the cold-blooded killer he really was, further evidence of his status as a master assassin. His targets would never suspect him before they met their end. He was exceptionally skilled at playing the part of a generous and sociable person who put others at ease. I’d come to wonder, though, if that wasn’t an act at all. Maybe he truly was the kind of person who genuinely loved his wife and hopelessly doted on his son.

I decided to make cream stew.

Rabbit meat had a mild taste similar to poultry and went well with thick seasoning. The main sources of flavor in this stew were a mellow soup stock prepared with homemade dried mushrooms, and fresh goat milk and butter.

With mushrooms, root vegetables, milk, and ample meat, this stew contained all the nutrients I needed, making it perfect for my growth.

“This pot you made sure is convenient, Lugh,” my mother said. “I can’t believe you were able to make such a thick, delicious stew in just thirty minutes. Are you sure you’re not cheating with some kind of spell? Oh, the long hours I’ve wasted laboring over my own broths in the past!”

“There’s nothing magical about a pressure cooker, Mother. I happened to find out about this technique in a book from the study and thought I’d try it out,” I lied.

The principles behind pressure cooking were straightforward. All you had to do was seal the pot so liquid and vapor couldn’t escape. That caused steam to build up and raise the pressure in the pot, which in turn helped cook the food inside faster. It wasn’t particularly complicated.

“Well, it looks like magic to me!” Cian exclaimed. “You really are smart, Lugh. I have long known that pressure causes this type of phenomenon, but I never would’ve thought to use it for cooking. This flexible way of thinking will serve you well as an assassin, my boy!” my father extolled.

It could, admittedly, get a bit embarrassing when my parents praised me for every single thing I did.

Before long, my cream stew was finished. It was thick and white and looked every bit as decadent as it smelled.

Last year, the family had purchased a large number of goats. Since then, we had plenty of goat milk and butter to use in our cooking.

“Father, Mother, please sit. Let’s eat,” I said.

Thus, we sat down to eat a family lunch.

Mother and I did most of the cooking in the Tuatha Dé household, which was quite rare for nobility. The reason for such an anomaly was rather simple: My mother loved to cook.

When I was five, I’d told her that I’d wanted to start cooking, and she’d been positively thrilled to teach me. Recently, however, my mother’s fear of my cooking ability overtaking hers had stoked a strange sense of competitiveness within her.

Perhaps it’s strange for a son to say this, but something about that combative spirit made her look youthful and cute.

That said, I could’ve done without some of the moments when she babied me. Even though I was now seven years old, she’d recently asked me if I wanted to suckle.

I set the food down on the table. In addition to the rabbit stew, we were also having some salad and bread.

The dining table was quite modest, given the Tuatha Dé family’s noble status. Our meals typically consisted of a main dish, bread, various side dishes, salads, soups, and the occasional dessert.

“This stew is stupendous, Lugh. You would have to be a genius to come up with something like this,” praised my mother.

“Too true! You can’t find stew like this in the capital, even. I bet we could sell this for quite the profit,” my father added.

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration. This isn’t anything to get so excited about,” I said.

“You’re too humble, Lugh. Ah, I have an idea! We should serve this stew at this year’s harvest festival! Everyone will love it!”

“Hmm, I think that’s a great idea. The ingredients are cheap, so we’ll stay under the festival’s budget even if we make enough for everyone in our domain. Perhaps this could even become a specialty dish for our land that our people will come to be proud of!”

Seeing Father dote on me as he did, I sometimes started to doubt if he was actually the head of the renowned Tuatha Dé clan of assassins… But it didn’t bother me. It wasn’t so bad to have such loving parents.

I was certainly having more fun with cooking than I ever had in my previous life.

Truthfully, I’d always been a decent cook. One of the easiest ways to infiltrate any venue to reach a target was by working as a chef. I’d learned the culinary arts because it was convenient for my job as a hired killer. The food I’d made back then, along with the many cuisines I’d sampled for research, had probably all tasted objectively better than the stew.

Curiously, this dish I’d prepared for my parents somehow tasted better than anything I’d known in my previous life. Perhaps it was because I was experiencing feelings my former self had never known.

After we finished eating, my mother began to gather up the dishes and take them to the kitchen. It was a rule in this household that those who didn’t cook had to clean up.

With a serious expression on his face, my father looked me up and down. Once a week before afternoon training, he’d check to see how much I’d grown. Based on that assessment, he’d choose the contents of that day’s training accordingly.

“You’ve grown enough to be able to handle surgery. Today you will receive your Tuatha Dé Mystic Eyes,” he declared.

I gulped.

So it’s that time already, huh? I’d seen the term “Mystic Eyes” show up in various documents in the study.

While I’d been born with the same silver hair as my mother, I had the eyes of neither parent. Mother’s eyes were a vivid shade of blue and Father’s eyes were the color of ash, but my eyes were black.

As it happened, my father’s eyes were black at birth. His eyes had turned gray later in life. That ashen color was proof that one bore the Mystic Eyes of House Tuatha Dé.

The implant surgery had been tested on hundreds of prisoners on death row. It was highly difficult and required mana to perform, but if successful, the patient would gain incredible perceptive ability.

“I’m ready, Father,” I said.

“Are you scared?”

“No, I trust your skill.”

He may have acted like a total sap when it was just the family, but when it came time to act as the head of the clan, Cian Tuatha Dé was a true professional.

“You have no need to worry. I promise you the surgery will be successful,” he assured me, and for good reason. This was not the first time he’d performed this procedure.

When I awoke, I was greeted by total darkness. Father had wrapped a bandage around my head after finishing the operation.

Once he’d judged it safe to remove the gauze, which was only moments later thanks to my Rapid Recovery skill, I did so and opened my eyes. Immediately, I was overtaken by just how much my vision had been altered.

There was a marked increase in my perception. My long-distance vision had improved as well. Objects in motion appeared far clearer, and it seemed I’d even acquired a stronger sense of depth.

I’d also acquired the ability to see mana. Normally, mana was something one could only sense, yet now I could faintly make out its flow within my body.

Being able to see an opponent’s mana would allow me to predict their movements, a major advantage in any fight. These new eyes of mine were basically cheating.

Unfortunately, such a sudden increase in capability was more than my brain could handle at first, and I was struck by a massive headache. I knew that, before long, Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth would help my mind adapt and process this new information. For the time being, I would just have to endure.

“Father, it worked. I can see more than ever before,” I said.

“That’s a relief. One day, Lugh, I’ll teach you how to perform this surgery so that you can pass it down to your child.”

“I understand.”

Developed three generations ago, this implantation surgery was one of House Tuatha Dé’s greatest secrets.

“With that business finished, I have good news to share with you. I’m finally able to grant you something that you’ve desired for a long time,” my father revealed.

“Did you find me a mentor who can teach me how to use magic?!” I excitedly asked.

Learning how to cast spells without a teacher was impossible. As such, I’ve wanted a proper instructor since birth. Both Mother and Father were quite used to using mana, but neither knew how to cast proper spells, so they couldn’t teach me. I’d been wanting to learn how to use magic for a long time so that I could finally put my Spell Weaver skill to use.

“That’s right. Your mentor will arrive next week. I suggest you devote yourself to preparing for their arrival,” my father instructed.

An absent element in my previous world, magic, I thought, was likely to end up being a key to the successful assassination of the hero.

My work aside, I was earnestly interested in learning how magic worked. I could hardly contain my excitement.

Chapter 4 | The Assassin Studies Magic

Over the years, I came to realize that my mother was an unusual person in a number of ways.

Despite her status, she loved to cook. She preferred typical home cooking to the fancy foods more commonly associated with high society. Luxurious things like jewelry and dresses didn’t seem to catch her interest very much, as she possessed few of either. Often, she would try her best to avoid the many invitations she received for tea gatherings, parties, and other such social assemblies. To top it all off, she spent her free time sewing.

“I think these clothes would look great on you, Lugh,” my mother said.

“… Ha-ha, they’re definitely cute, but they look like girls’ clothing, and they’ll be difficult to move around in,” I responded. The outfit was rather frilly and had an excess of decoration. I had no interest in dressing like a girl. Still, I didn’t want to upset her, so I tried letting her down as gently as possible.

“What? Lugh, you really don’t want to wear this?” my mother asked.

“Well…sorry.”

“I worked so hard on this for you, though… It would be such a waste if you didn’t wear it. Please try it on!” Putting her hands together in a begging motion, my mother bowed her head.

“They look like something a girl would wear, though.” It seemed my point hadn’t gone through the first time, so with this rebuttal I tried to be more direct.

“But I really think they’d look great on you!”

“Mother, you’re not even denying that they look like girls’ clothes…”

“If you wear them, I’ll make your favorite roast duck for dinner tonight.”

Growing up in the Tuatha Dé household, I’d been raised with love, and I’d come to understand what it meant to love others. For that, I was very grateful, and it’s why I tried my best to be a good son for my parents.

Even so, some things were just too much.

Unfortunately, my mother was looking at me as if she was about to cry, and I caved. “Fine, I’ll wear it. But you’d better make the roast duck like you promised.”

“Of course! I’m going to call a painter while you’re changing. The image of you in this adorable outfit needs to be captured for posterity!”

“… Now, that I won’t agree to. My new mentor is arriving today. I can’t make them wait.”

“Oh, you’re right. How disappointing…”

I’d been eagerly looking forward to the arrival of my magic instructor all day. Originally, my impatience had been because I just wanted to learn magic, but now I suddenly found myself with an even more pressing reason for hoping they’d arrive soon. No sooner had my mother started using me as her personal dress-up doll than my teacher arrived. I was saved.

“Are you satisfied yet, Mother? I need to change back to go greet my mentor,” I said.

“What are you talking about? Just keep on what you’re wearing now. I made that outfit for this very occasion, after all,” she replied.

After I gave her a look of shock, Mother suddenly moved back and held the clothes I’d previously been wearing tight to her chest to keep me from retrieving them.

In my mind, I knew she was teasing me. There was no way my mother wasn’t enjoying this rare chance to see me so flustered.

At the call of a servant, I made my way to the reception room, where I was greeted by a girl and her attendant. The girl was wearing a robe that could not have been more fitting for a practitioner of magic. As she removed her hood, silver hair tumbled down to rest at her shoulders.

I’d never seen anyone other than myself or Mother with silver hair before. This girl was exceptionally beautiful.

Her age, however, was somewhat concerning. She looked to be only around ten years old, but I knew better than to judge based on physical maturity. One look at myself was all I needed to know that making snap decisions based on how young one looked was unwise.

I could tell right away that the strength of the mana surrounding her greatly surpassed Father’s.

Just the fact that this girl was a mage had to mean she was either a noble or a knight. Given her high mana capacity, it was more likely that she was descended from a lineage of the former.

A mage was a person who possessed mana. Parents who didn’t possess mana themselves rarely give birth to children who did, and as one might’ve expected, parents with strong mana often sired children with strong mana as well.

The country my family lived in had traditionally placed great value on people who possessed mana. Thus, it was unsurprising that a high-ranking noble family likely also bore children with greater mana.

That’s exactly the reason why it fell to a noble family like House Tuatha Dé to become a clan of assassins. Only a noble was capable of killing one of their own.

My father entered the room and invited the girl to sit on the sofa before seating himself. I followed their example and sat down as well.

A servant brought us all herbal tea.

“I’m sorry for making you travel all the way here. You must have a busy schedule,” my father apologized.

“No need to worry about that. The Viekone family owes much to House Tuatha Dé, in spite of your thievery,” the girl replied.

“Ha-ha, calling me a thief is a bit harsh, no?” my father asked.

The girl seemed to be referring to something I was unaware of.

Whatever it was likely referred to my family’s secret trade. Yet the number of people who knew about our status as assassins was very limited. Furthermore, there shouldn’t have been any nobles in the Alvanian Kingdom with the name Viekone.

Just who is this girl? I wondered.

“So is this kid my new apprentice? I was told he was a boy,” the girl inquired.

“… I am a boy,” I stated.

I knew this would happen. I resolved to speak with my mother about this later.

“These clothes were made by my wife. Sewing is a hobby of hers,” my father explained.

“Oh, really? Now that you mention it, she… Ahem. Anyway… Isn’t he a little young to be learning magic?”

“Lugh is a special case. You may not believe me, but at seven years old, he’s already more capable than most of my subordinates—on both sides of the Tuatha Dé coin, so to speak. He’s a genius of your level, Dia.”

“If this wasn’t Cian Tuatha Dé speaking, I would’ve dismissed this simply as a parent being overly fond of their child. All right, I’ll teach him the basics in the two weeks I’ve been allotted. However, if I judge him to be unworthy of my training, I’ll declare this a waste of time and discontinue my instruction.”

Finding the deal agreeable, my father nodded. If I was judged unworthy, I’d lose the mentor I’d waited so long for… I needed to give this my all.

Instead of the indoor training room, my teacher and I ended up using the courtyard for magic practice.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dia Viekone. I’m ten years old, but it would be unwise to underestimate me. I’m far more proficient with magic than any adult,” stated the mage with considerable confidence.

“I’m Lugh Tuatha Dé. I’m seven years old. I look forward to your guidance,” I answered in kind.

“Nice to meet you. First, I need to measure the strength of your mana. This training will be pointless if your mana is below average,” Dia said, and she prepared a transparent marble.

“Lugh, you know how to manipulate mana, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. I learned from my father.”

“You don’t need to be so polite. I don’t want this to feel so stiff.”

“But you’re my mentor.”

“That’s true, but…be more relaxed. Magic is tiring enough, so it would be foolish to waste energy on your speech.”

Something about Dia’s attitude felt curiously familiar.

Her silver hair, her facial features, and, above all, her personality reminded me of my mother.

“All right. I’ll be less formal. So what am I supposed to do with this ball?” I dropped formality and started to speak in the natural voice I usually kept hidden from my parents.

It felt far better to talk that way, and Dia gave a satisfied smile.

“Hold it and fill it with mana. Continue until your mana is fully depleted. That way we’ll be able to measure your mana capacity.”

I directed my mana into the ball and was surprised to discover the marble really did have the ability to store it all.

Single-mindedly, I focused on transferring my mana into the marble. At first, Dia was nodding as if impressed, but after a minute passed, her expression shifted to disbelief. She even began to sweat.

“Releasing that much mana for over a minute is not normal!” she exclaimed.

“I still have plenty to spare.” It wasn’t a lie. I’d had yet to use even 20 percent of my mana. The fact that my mana was still vigorously flowing into the marble was proof of that.

“I-is that so? Then continue,” Dia instructed.

“Understood,” I replied.

By the time I passed the three-minute mark, Dia’s face had totally stiffened.

My mana capacity was close to a thousand times higher than the average person’s because of the amount of training I’d done. It was thanks to the information about this world from the goddess that I’d known how best to increase my capacity, and I’d worked hard to make good use of that insight.

The more you use mana, the more your maximum amount of mana will increase. This is a very slow process, however. Your maximum increases by a factor of only 0.01 percent each time you fully exhaust your mana. Complicating things further was that it took the average person around three days to fully recover their mana after exhausting it.

Even if you spent a year repeating this process fully as often as you could, it would take a year to grow your mana capacity by a single percent. Following that ratio, it would take ten years to increase it by 10 percent. Maintaining a steady release of mana in this manner until you run out was also extremely tiring, so there weren’t many people who were capable of the discipline required to stick with that sort of rigorous exercise.

In my case, Rapid Recovery allowed me to recover my mana at one hundred times the normal rate, which increased a hundredfold the efficiency with which I could train my mana. My stamina also returned to me at a similar rate, so releasing mana didn’t tire me out at all.

With that in mind, I reasoned that I could increase my mana capacity by 330 percent every year. On top of that, my recovery rate from Rapid Recovery also increased as I trained, compounding the process and making it even more efficient.

Thanks to my making sure I constantly discharged mana, my capacity had already swelled to a thousand times higher than what it was at birth. If I hadn’t chosen the Limitless Growth skill, I surely would’ve hit my natural maximum a long time ago. That was precisely the reason I chose both Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth.

“No matter how you look at it, this amount of mana is not normal!!!”

“I have what I have. There’s nothing abnormal about taking this long to release a large mana capacity.”

I had managed to multiply my mana capacity by one thousand, but that affects only the amount of mana I can store. The amount of mana you can release at once, known as instantaneous mana discharge, increases at a much slower rate through training than capacity. Instantaneous mana discharge takes longer to increase the higher your mana capacity is, so right now it takes me five times longer than the average person. That’s why I’m so interested in this marble.

If I filled several of these marbles with a vast quantity of mana and built up a collection of them, I could use them in times of need to instantly release a much higher amount of mana than my instantaneous mana discharge was capable of.

As if it had heard my thoughts, the marble suddenly made a high-pitched noise and began to crack. Dia’s face went pale, then quickly turned dark red.

“Throw it! Now! Throw it up as high as you can!!!” she cried.

I shifted my mana toward upping my physical strength and threw the marble into the air, as instructed.

I may only have the body of a seven-year-old, but thanks to the combination of my special Tuatha Dé training and Rapid Recovery, my physical strength had increased significantly, and I could use my abnormally high mana to increase my strength even more.

I threw the marble so high it disappeared into the sky. Seconds later, it erupted in a massive blue explosion.

Evidently, it was a good thing I’d thrown it with all my strength. If that explosion had happened anywhere near the ground, it would have wiped out the estate and everyone on it. Unfortunately, it’d still been strong enough to send a blast of wind back down, one strong enough to shake the mansion and shatter its windows.

Not a moment later, Mother and Father rushed outside to find out what had happened.

“Ms. Dia, what was that just now?” asked Father.

“I’m so sorry! I was trying to measure Lugh’s mana, and…,” Dia began.

“So you’re telling me Lugh did this?” Father gave the young instructor a piercing look.

“A-ah, no, not really. I-it was my fault!”

“That’s not what I’m asking. Is Lugh the one who caused that explosion?”

“W-well, yes. But it wasn’t his fault—it was mine, so if you’re angry, you should be angry with me!”

Despite her usual mature demeanor, Dia looked like any other child her age as she stood quaking, her eyes closed. Perhaps she thought my father was going to hit her.

That was not what happened, however, because Father was clearly not angry over this.

“That’s incredible!!! Esri, did you hear that?!” he asked excitedly.

“Yes, as expected of our boy genius! To think he’s already capable of such powerful magic!”

“Yes, but it isn’t really suited for assassination,” my father said. “No matter how you look at it, this is magic more suited for war. Ms. Dia, please teach him magic that will assist him as an assassin next.”

“U-understood. Wait, huh?! Are you not mad?”

“Of course not! I couldn’t have imagined a more splendid first show of magic from Lugh. Choosing you was the right decision, Ms. Dia.”

Both grinning like the proud parents they were, Mother and Father returned to the mansion.

“Uh, sorry about that. They always get like that when it comes to me,” I admitted.

“They’re…quite something, aren’t they?” Dia said, choosing her words carefully.

“By the way, Dia. Sorry to change the subject, but could you tell me where I can obtain more of those little balls? They seem very useful. I’d like a lot of them, if possible,” I asked.

“These are prized goods from my domain. We’re not allowed to give them to outsiders,” the young mage replied.

I clicked my tongue in disappointment.

“What was that for?!” Dia snapped.

“Oh, I was just thinking that those balls would be really useful if I obtained a large quantity of them. They would make for amazing weapons.”

To prepare as many methods for killing the hero as I could, I’d been looking into options outside of magic or training. I’d even gone so far as to consider developing firearms.

Obtaining the necessary gunpowder for that proved to be difficult, however. Making gunpowder was easy enough, but making high-quality explosives more suited for firearms was too challenging.

That’s what made this marble so incredible. With that kind of explosive power, I could create weapons that rivaled the strength of a tank cannon…no, even better, the cannon of a battleship.

“… This may be my parents’ influence speaking, but as I said, I really can’t give you one. Ahem. Anyway, your mana capacity turned out to be immeasurable, but it’s enough just knowing that you’ll have plenty of mana to deal with any situation. I’m curious; how much mana do you think you have left?” Dia asked.

“Hmm, I’d say about two-thirds,” I answered.

“I’m so jealous… But mana capacity does not make a great mage alone! Let’s move on.”

“Hey, Dia?”

“What is it?”

“Are you sure you can’t give me any of those marbles?”

“How many times do I have to say it? No!”

That was disappointing. At least I knew that I would be able to find some if I traveled to Dia’s homeland. I resolved to make sure I got my hands on some, if at all possible. Being able to make weapons that could discharge a huge amount of mana all at once would be a huge boon toward killing the hero.

There would be time for that later, however. With the preparation complete, it was time for me to learn how to use magic.

Chapter 5 | The Assassin Learns Spells

Dia produced a new marble in place of the one I’d caused to explode.

Such an enormous explosion had resulted from simply attempting to measure my mana capacity. Magic was more dangerous than I’d expected.

Which meant it could be a very powerful weapon. Simply pouring enough mana into that marble had caused a massive explosion. Perhaps if I configured those little spheres to safely store mana, I’d be able to use them to discharge with even greater force… I was getting excited just thinking about it. I really wanted more of those marbles.

“Hey, are you daydreaming again? I won’t give you any!” Dia said, as if reading my mind.

“It’s a bit late to be asking this, but what are those balls called?”

“They’re called Fahr Stones.”

Dia said they were available only in her domain, but it was hard to imagine their material couldn’t be mined elsewhere. I’d have to do some more research later.

“Lugh, I’m going to hand you another Fahr Stone, but it won’t be yours to keep, okay? This time, just fill it with a little bit of mana and give it back to me. I would’ve used the stone we used to measure your mana, but since it exploded, we’ll need to use a second one.”

“Sorry.”

“No, no need to apologize. That was an accident. All right, then, go ahead and infuse it with mana.”

I did as I was told and handed it back.

Dia grasped it tightly. “Let’s see, I’ll try for fire first.” She concentrated, and the stone turned from transparent into a shining red. “Your elemental affinity is fire. It’s possible to have two elemental affinities, so let’s try real quick to see if you have another.”

The stone became transparent again, then turned an aqua shade.

“Ah, impressive. You also have an aptitude for water. You’re the only person I’ve met other than myself with two affinities. This is very rare, you know. You should be proud.”

“What did you just do?” I asked.

“I’m stimulating the mana stored in the stone to check for elemental affinity. The Fahr Stone will change color corresponding to each of your affinities.”

“I see. Would you mind checking for the two remaining elemental affinities?”

“Sure, but I’ve never heard of anyone having three affinities… Wait, what? Earth affinity, too? And wind?! You can use all four elements?! Is that even possible?!”

The reason I had affinity for the four basic elements was because the goddess had allowed me to choose Total Affinity, which halved the rate of improvement of each affinity in exchange for allowing me to use fire, water, earth, and wind.

“Seems that way. We now know my mana capacity and my elemental affinities. So what’s next?” I asked.

“… This is one unbelievable thing after another. But, whew, I guess I should expect the unexpected with you. I don’t think anything you do could surprise me at this point. All right, now the real lesson begins. Time to teach you how to use magic.”

Dia stood behind me and placed a slender hand on the back of my neck.

“Does this feel okay? You can already use mana, but magic is different. To use it, you’ll need to perform an elemental conversion, which I’ll help you with. Your first elemental conversion is an intense experience that will be burned into your memory forever. You might end up stuck with some unfortunate habits for life if you are led through your first conversion by an unskilled teacher.”

“… You’re not an unskilled teacher, are you, Dia?” I asked.

“No need to worry. I promise I’ll give you the best first experience you could ask for,” she replied.

I felt a strange power flowing into my body from my nape. It seemed the mana within my body was being directly converted, similar to that which had been contained within the Fahr Stone earlier.

“Don’t lose focus. We’re going to do earth first, my strongest affinity. Feel the conversion of mana in your skin. Engrave it into your heart,” Dia instructed.

Just as directed, I closed my eyes and focused on the mana morphing within me. I could feel it shifting and beginning to change shape. It was a pleasant feeling. I’d never had anyone other than Dia do this to me, so I had no point of reference, but something told me she was most certainly skilled.

Shortly after the pleasant sensation came to an end, Dia removed her hand.

“You’ve had your first experience. Now go ahead and try it yourself,” she directed.

“That was nice. Thank you… I think I understand how it works, more or less. Like this, right?” I changed the colorless mana in my body to earth mana, just as Dia had demonstrated.

“That was a little rough. You might have a large capacity for mana, but if you can’t properly convert it, that will be meaningless. A typical conversion rate sits around sixty percent, but because I’m your teacher, we’re going to aim for eighty percent.”

You could cast magic only by using mana that had undergone an elemental conversion. In other words, any mana that wasn’t properly converted was wasted energy. I could see why Father had been so careful with his selection of mentor.

If a mage was saddled with bad habits because their first conversion was performed by a poor teacher, they’d struggle with losing mana during conversions for the rest of their life.

After trying it myself, I now understood how skilled Dia’s elemental conversion really was. Clearly, she was the best of the best. I tried again, this time following her example as best I could.

“Well, you’re not going to get there easily. You’ll have to train for years to— Hey, wait! H-how have you improved that much already?!” Dia exclaimed.

“I just followed your example. I still have a long way to go to become as good as you.”

“My pride is going to be in shambles if you overtake me on your first day! And people call me a genius… Elemental conversion is one of the quintessential skills for casting mana. Make sure to practice it every day. Hmm-hmm-hmm, this isn’t going to be easy for you. Since you have four elements, that’s going to make your training four times as difficult.”

Although I wasn’t quite sure how I knew it, I was certain I understood how to convert my mana to all four of the elements after only changing my mana to earth.

I’d have to set aside time every day to practice this.

After gathering some earth mana, a collection of symbols I’d never seen before suddenly appeared in my mind.

“Ah, that face must mean you’ve just learned some magic, right?” asked Dia.

“So this is magic…,” I said.

“Yep. Once you fill your body with a higher amount of elemental magic than normal, you receive a divine revelation from the gods and learn your first spell.”

“… I see the spell in my mind, but how do I use it?” I had no idea what these mental characters meant, to say nothing of how to read them.

“You need to chant the words while boosting your converted mana… I’ll demonstrate using the spell you just learned. Watch closely.”

With a beautiful singing voice, Dia strung words together in a language unlike any I’d ever heard. The pronunciation and accent sounded completely different from the local language. When the incantation concluded, a lump of lead formed in her hand.

“This is the first magic that you learn from the earth affinity. A spell to produce lead. New spells will appear in your mind as you use magic, bestowed upon you by the gods. This spell only produces lead, which is relatively soft, but if you train, you’ll be able to produce harder metals like iron!” Dia explained.

Iron did have a higher degree of hardness, but that didn’t necessarily make it superior to lead. Regardless, learning new spells through repeated use of my elemental affinities sounded fun.

“I’d like to try myself, but I can’t read these weird characters, if that’s what they even are. Can you teach me how to read these?” I asked.

“Yes, that is one of the fundamentals of magic. Proper pronunciation of the magic characters, referred to as runes, means everything! The accuracy of your pronunciation has an effect on the precision and force of your magic.”

“So elemental conversion and incantation are equally important. This sounds tough.”

“There are many people who decide to never use magic because of how troublesome it is to learn. There are other drawbacks that dissuade people, too.”

“Really? Magic seems really convenient, though. Even the spell for producing lead that you just showed me could have any number of uses.”

A lump of iron on its own could be fashioned into an acceptable weapon, and I had to imagine there were plenty of other spells that were far more useful.

“Like I said, there are obstacles. Possessing magic gives you the strength of a hundred soldiers on the battlefield because you can use mana to increase your physical strength and defense. However, when you cast a spell, you have to divert mana to your incantation, which results in your strength and defense falling to that of a normal person. This makes you very vulnerable if you’re in the middle of a fight.”

That definitely sounded dangerous. If you got caught mid-incantation within the striking distance of a foe, it’d likely be the end.

Even with such a weakness, magic held so much potential. It also would be a waste not to use it given my Spell Weaver skill, which allowed me to create new spells.

I already had a spell that could produce lead, and there was also one that could apparently produce iron as well. I wondered if perhaps it was possible for me to then use Spell Weaver to alter the formula and produce metals more suited for combat.

Titanium, for example, would be quite useful. It was just as tough as iron but considerably lighter. The hard and heavy tungsten could also prove useful.

I could use titanium to make light and sturdy slashing weapons, while tungsten could be fashioned into piercing armaments like spears or bullets. Magic held many possibilities to increase my combat capabilities.

Given the technology of this world, most weapons were made with, at best, low-quality iron possessed of high levels of impurities. Using weapons made from high-quality metals would give me a big advantage over others.

Just the fact that I could produce metals from thin air was incredible on its own, as the metal itself could make for a useful weapon. For example, if I jumped up high in the air and then produced a metal with a high atomic mass and hurled it back down, I could create an incredible amount of kinetic energy.

As I pondered even further, I hit upon the idea of producing a makeshift gun by propelling bullets created from my earth affinity with explosions produced by my fire affinity. There was also the question of if I could create Fahr Stones via magic. If so, I could fashion bombs with massive explosive power.

After learning only one spell, I was already overwhelmed by the many possibilities. Surely more spells would only lead to further inspiration.

“Um, Lugh? What’s going on? You’ve been standing there grinning to yourself,” Dia said.

“Ah, sorry. It’s nothing.”

In truth, I was getting rather excited at the many prospects.

Studying runes in order to perfect my incantations would need to be a priority. Once I mastered the art of casting magic, I’d have a whole new world of options at my disposal.

Thankfully, I had Dia as my teacher. I was certain to master the language of magic in no time.

Chapter 6 | The Assassin Creates New Magic

My lessons with Dia on how to read runes soon began in earnest.

There were thirty-six characters. After learning the pronunciations of each, I then had to study how their pronunciations changed when lined up with other characters. It didn’t seem like Dia knew anything about the meaning of each individual symbol, which was a little disappointing.

Creating new spells with Spell Weaver looked like it was going to be really hard.

There was no way I’d be able to write new spells without understanding the meanings of the runes or the rules behind the language.

Despite such a complication, Dia was a wonderful teacher. Her pronunciation of the language was beautiful. She read the most difficult of words without falter.

Altogether, the thirty-six characters of the magic language combined to make 114 sounds. Dia was having me learn them all through repetition. She read some runes to me, and I repeated back what she said.

“How are you able to memorize these after hearing them just once?!” she exclaimed.

“I have confidence in my memory. My tongue is having trouble keeping up, though,” I replied.

There were certain methods that existed to help improve one’s memory. I knew of them from my previous life and had put them to good use with learning runes.

That’s not the only reason my memory was so good, however. My Tuatha Dé eyes were continually sending massive amounts of information into my brain. Thankfully, Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth were also allowing my brain to adapt to handle such a burden. As a side effect, my level of retention also increased.

Compared to Dia, though, my pronunciation was still quite rough. The runic language required the use of facial muscles that I didn’t normally rely on, so it was going take practice to improve my intonation.

“That doesn’t make me feel any better! I had to study super hard to learn these… Anyway, once you learn how to pronounce the characters, you can move on to incantation. You can currently only use one spell, so I’ll read that one to you first,” Dia said.

Dia chose the first earth spell, the one that produced lead, and wrote it down. She slowly chanted it while tracing the characters with her finger, and a clump of lead appeared in her palm. With a motion, she bade me to try next. Nodding, I read the spell.

With some effort, I was able to produce lead. It took no small amount of concentration, however.

With my Tuatha Dé eyes, I was able to see the movement of mana as Dia and I cast spells. Far more of my own had been wasted than Dia’s, and for the amount of mana I’d spent, the lead I produced was small and full of impurities.

“So this is magic. It’s fun,” I commented.

“I was excited the first time I used magic, too. It’s so much fun being granted new spells as you use more magic.”

“Wouldn’t you be able to skip waiting for spells to appear in your mind if someone just wrote one down on a piece of paper and handed it to you? Shouldn’t using mana and reading the formula be enough?” I asked.

“Want to give it a try? I’ll write another earth spell… Should I demonstrate it for you first?” offered Dia.

“No, that’s fine. I just want to see if anything will happen.”

The one Dia had written looked to be about the same length as the formula for creating lead. Upon closer inspection, I realized that around 95 percent of the characters were the same. Dia had probably intentionally chosen a spell that would be easy for me to read.

I recited the spell, and a piece of metal appeared just like before. This time, it was iron.

“No way, it actually worked… That’s so weird. Now that I think about it, it seems obvious that this should work. I can’t see why no one ever thought to try it until now.”

As Dia had said, it was baffling that nobody had ever tried this method of casting spells before. In this world, you could use only spells given to you by the gods. Perhaps, as a way to enforce that rule, there was some kind of contrivance in place preventing anyone without the Spell Weaver skill from coming up with that idea.

Having just produced two different metals, I was struck by a bolt of inspiration. The formulas for lead and iron were 95 percent the same. From that, it seemed natural to conclude that the remaining 5 percent of the formula was what specified the material produced.

… So by adjusting that 5 percent of the formula, can I produce whatever type of metal I want? I thought.

The trouble was that even if I knew which portion of the spell formula to change, I didn’t know how to change it. I didn’t yet understand the language or how the formulas actually worked. There was a way to narrow that down, however.

“I have a request. Can you write down all of the formulas you know, demonstrate them, and teach me what they do?”

I could guess the meanings of two formulas to an extent by studying them side by side, but it would be much more efficient to compare their similarities and differences by seeing them in action.

With a bigger sample of spells to work with, I could quickly gain a far deeper understanding of how the formulas worked.

“Hey, this isn’t going to be easy, you know,” Dia warned.

“That’s all right. After comparing the formulas for lead and iron, I noticed that they’re almost entirely the same. It was only a small difference in the formulas that changed the metal that was produced… If I’m right about that, then if I analyze and compare more similarities and differences between spells, I’ll be able to figure out how magic equations work. I might then even be able to adjust formulas and create entirely new spells. So, please, it’ll help me a lot. As thanks, I’ll do anything you want,” I pleaded.

“… Fine. But I’m not doing it for your thanks. I just think unraveling the meaning of the formulas and creating new spells sounds really exciting. I want to try creating new magic, too.” Dia wrote down the nine earth spells and the seven fire spells she could use. She explained each and performed all of them for me, taking occasional breaks to recover mana.

After she finished, we pored over the formulas together for similarities and differences. Dia’s cognitive ability was impressive—her intuition seemed very well honed. She even spotted a number of rules that I’d missed myself.

While debating the rules of the formulas, we continually came up with new ideas, a process that only served to drag us further into our work. The sun had set before we’d noticed.

Though it had taken a great amount of effort, it was also a lot of fun. Watching Dia’s face light up as she passionately argued her own theories, I suddenly realized how cute she was. I’d never experienced a feeling like that before.

“Lugh, are you listening to me?” Dia asked.

“U-um, yeah, I’m listening,” I stammered out, embarrassed that I allowed myself to zone out while thinking about her like that.

“I think the part that differs between the formulas for producing lead and iron represents numbers. Look at these three formulas here. This section makes sense if you substitute numbers for the characters. If we assume that’s the case, then in the lead formula, the numbers are 11.3, 327.5, and 207.2. Iron is 7.8, 1,540, and 55.8… I don’t know what this means, though. I have no idea what we would even change the numbers to.”

As I thought about what Dia said, it began to help me understand other parts of each formula, too. It was clear enough that the numbers written in the lead and iron formulas were anything but random.

“Lead is 11.3, 327.5, 207.2. Iron is 7.8, 1,540, 55.8… This can’t be a coincidence. Nice catch! Can you make a conversion chart for runes and numbers?” I requested.

“Of course. All right, here you go,” Dia answered, handing me a quickly drafted sheet.

Consulting the chart, I altered the formula for producing lead. I changed 11.3 to 10.5, 327.5 to 961.8, and 207.2 to 107.9. All I did was change the numbers in those three columns, but if my assumption was correct, it was likely to produce the result I was looking for.

Dia began the incantation, cast the spell, and produced a cube of silver.

“Is this silver?! I’ve never heard of magic that produces silver,” she said as she examined the conjured object.

“Just as I thought. These three numbers designate the parameters of the metal you want to produce,” I said.

“Explain that to me in a way I can understand,” Dia requested.

“These numbers represent density, melting point, and atomic weight. Which means all you have to do is change the parameters of lead to silver, and the spell will produce it,” I explained. There were still some points I was unclear on. I thought these units of measurement were created in my original world, but if they were really created by the gods here, then how did they exist in my old life, too?

A feeling that there was a deeper secret hidden within this discovery needled at the back of my mind.

That was the only part of the formula I understood at that point, but I made sure to make note of it. It could very well have been an important key to unlocking how the rest worked.

“Yeah, I’m still totally lost…,” Dia admitted.

My excitement was building. Ignoring Dia’s confusion, I altered the formula two more times and performed the incantations.

“Ha-ha, it worked again. Titanium and tungsten, two metals I never thought I’d be able to obtain in this world… You had spells that allow you to reshape metal, too, right?”

Searching Dia’s list, I found the spell I was looking for. Rather easily, I shaped the titanium into a knife and swung it at a tree in the garden. It proved to be both sharp and comfortably light.

I now had a knife made of titanium in an era where the most common metal was iron filled with impurities. While titanium was harder than iron, it was also 40 percent lighter and very resistant to corrosion. Possessing such a resource gave me enough of an advantage that you may as well have called it a magic blade.

Next up was tungsten. It was a very strong metal with high weight and hardness, and it was known for being very rare.

“Just as I expected, I was able to produce the exact metals I wanted. Dia, you try these incantations, too,” I said.

“All right, I’ll try… Ah, I actually made silver. I can’t believe this!” she exclaimed.

While my theory proved true, something about the situation still troubled me. To successfully write new formulas, you should’ve needed Spell Weaver. If Dia could also use these new spells, I was beginning to worry that I didn’t need the skill after all.

“Hey, Dia. Want to see if we can make gold? I know the parameters,” I proposed.

“Yeah, let’s try it. If you know the numbers, I should be able to do it, too!”

Dia wrote down the new formula with the numbers I gave her and began the incantation. Suddenly, her face turned red, and the girl collapsed.

“Are you okay, Dia?!”

“Y-yeah, I’m okay. I just suddenly got a massive headache and became really nauseous,” she explained.

I looked at the formula. Everything was correct. Dia had written the density, melting point, and atomic weight just as I’d told her.

I wrote down the exact same formula that Dia did, and unlike her, I successfully conjured gold.

… So this is what Spell Weaver does.

If anyone other than me tried to create a new spell and cast it, their body would suffer a kind of adverse reaction to the incantation, preventing them from using it.

If I wrote the equation, however, it seemed that anyone would be able to use it. At the moment, that was only a hypothesis, though. I’d need to make sure.

“Dia, if you don’t want to do this, that’s fine. I wrote down the exact same spell that you did. Try reading it now. This is essential for finding the criteria for creating new spells.”

“You know if you word it like that, I can’t say no, right? I’m too curious now.”

Pale, Dia chanted the formula that I wrote down. This time she got through the incantation without faltering, and she successfully produced some gold.

“That’s strange. I suppose this means I can create new spells, too, just by having you write them down for me. This is really exciting. Let’s work hard to discover all the rules we can! If we do that, we’ll be able to create even more amazing magic!”

“Glad we’re on the same page. We should divvy up the work. The first problem is that our list of spells to sample from is too small right now. I’m going to cast as much water and wind magic as I can in order to learn new spells. Dia, you take fire and earth,” I said.

“Of course!” she agreed.

We firmly shook each other’s hands.

My ability to create new spells was really something I should’ve kept a secret. Enlisting the help of another was something my first self would never have done. Dia was truly skilled, however, so working with her served to speed up my process.

If I was being honest, though, spending time with her was fun. Far more so than anything else I’d ever done. That’s why I asked her to stay, despite my better instincts.

Thus, I took my first important step toward creating spells.

But mindlessly and carelessly creating new kinds of magic would only lead to trouble. I knew I needed a goal to focus my efforts. Today I’d been able to devise a way to create whatever metal I wanted, and I learned how to shape it. If I could learn some sort of explosive magic, I could create firearms.

Bullets would never be an issue because of my large supply of mana. My other abilities would help me ensure an accuracy that would rival the guns of my previous world.

Once mastered, I’d be able to produce a weapon with significant range and destructive force at any time, even while being empty-handed. I couldn’t think of a weapon more suitable for assassination, nor could I imagine a better first goal to work toward.

The thought of how much I could achieve by working with Dia had me the most excited I’d ever been in my new life.

Chapter 7 | The Assassin Utilizes Knowledge from His Previous World

It had been nine days since Dia’s arrival. The mage was mature for her age, but I’d noticed she was prone to bouts of loneliness and acting like a spoiled child.

The day before, she’d told me it was too lonely for me to sleep by myself, despite my age. Then she immediately climbed into my bed and used me as a body pillow.

Because of how young we were, there was nothing sexual about it, but for some reason, it still set my heart racing. When Dia hugged me, I became strangely aware of her sweet fragrance, her softness, and her warmth.

“Lugh, you’d better make sure to listen to your big sister today.”

“… When did I become your little brother?”

“Ah, Lord Cian hasn’t told you about that thing. Well, regardless, this is an order from your mentor: You’re now my little brother!”

That thing? I wondered. Is Dia saying she’s a child of my father’s from another woman? No, that’s impossible.

Since Dia was my mentor, I’d gathered as much information on her as I could. Dia’s last name was Viekone. There was no noble family in Alvan with that name. There was, however, a count in a neighboring country with that name.

My mother was purported to have been a commoner, but she had mana, and her elegant demeanor and etiquette were too refined to have been adopted later in life. Everything about her would’ve made you think she was born into a wealthy family.

Dia reminded me a lot of her. They both had the same distinct silver hair, a similar physical appearance, similar habits, and they both spoke with a slight accent to their speech that you otherwise didn’t hear anywhere in Alvan.

I’d been wondering if maybe Mother was born into House Viekone and had disguised her social status before marrying Father. Were that true, there was a good chance Dia was my cousin.

“Got it. I’ll follow my mentor’s orders,” I responded.

“Hmm-hmm, I’m glad we have an understanding. Man, Tuatha Dé food is delicious!” Dia said through a mouthful of gratin.

Yesterday I’d brought home another rabbit and served cream stew again. Today I took the leftovers and used them to prepare gratin. I added pasta and spice to the stew, then I further altered the taste by sprinkling in some dried tomatoes. After that, I added ample amounts of cheese and baked it in the oven. The mixture quickly became a delicious gratin.

“Sorry I couldn’t make anything fancier,” I apologized.

“I’m sick of that kind of stuff. Gratin has a really nice taste. I love it,” Dia replied.

“I’m glad.”

“… How are you able to do all this at just seven years old? You seem to have an extensive knowledge of just about everything, and you’re smarter than me despite being younger. Everyone called me a genius, but you’re on another level.”

“It’s all thanks to my parents’ education. Oh yeah, I need to go grab something for dinner later. I know you’re going to like it.”

It was almost the season when the pheasants fattened up for the winter, which made them really tasty. Once today’s magic research had ended, I’d have to go hunt some. That way I could treat Dia to a delicious pheasant roast for dinner.

Dia and I went out to the courtyard.

Over the last ten days, we’d been splitting up the work and recording a wide variety of new spells and rules.

If it hadn’t been clear before that Dia had a talent for magic, it certainly was now. I had been fairly self-assured in my skills of analysis, but Dia had discovered way more rules than I had.

“This should complete the spell you’ve been working on, Lugh,” she said, passing me a note with something scribbled on it.

“Amazing. This is exactly what I was looking for. You’re really good at this,” I praised.

“I’m your big sister, after all!”

That doesn’t have anything to do with it , I thought. It would’ve been annoying to have Dia get upset with me, so instead I merely nodded and added the new piece to the formula I’d been working on.

“If we can pull this off, it’ll dramatically increase the value of magic,” Dia surmised.

“Yeah, you’re right. This long-range magic with explosive firepower should have very low fuel consumption. It’ll be incredibly convenient,” I said.

Before long, it was time to test some magic fit for assassination.

The spells we were developing were extremely dangerous, so Dia and I decided to perform our tests on a hill behind the estate.

After exchanging a nod with my mentor, I performed an earth elemental conversion and began my incantation. I produced iron from thin air, morphed it into the shape of a cylinder with a handle, and then carved out the inside of the cylinder.

I continued to chant, loading the cylinder with a tungsten bullet.

The first step was complete. Next, I performed a fire elemental conversion and once again began to chant. I filled the inside of the cylinder with fire mana until…

BOOM.

An explosion propelled the bullet forward. The little projectile spiraled rapidly thanks to the rifling I’d carved into the barrel.

Instantly, the bullet broke the sound barrier. With impressive aerodynamic stability, it traveled four hundred meters, where it knocked down a large tree.

“Wow, it worked! This new magic we’re developing could change the way people use spells. You can reach distances impossible with a bow, and it’s so accurate and so strong! This is amazing!” Dia exclaimed, excited.

“With this kind of range, you won’t have to worry about being defenseless during the incantation,” I said.

Up until now, incantations had to be cast relatively close to your opponent. But with this firing range, you’d be able to safely chant from a distance where not even arrows could reach you.

Dia performed the same incantation that I had and tried firing a bullet.

“Whoo-hoo! I hit that boulder! It was massive, but it was blown to pieces.”

“Let’s practice a bit more. It’s clearly powerful, but we need to ensure that it’s accurate, too. I prepared these for that purpose.” I motioned to a large collection of bullets I’d created in advance.

Making a bullet every time you wanted to fire was inefficient. Instead, it was better to have many of them ready and simply load them by hand before propelling them with the fire explosion. This method was sure to work better in battle.

“Good thinking. Let’s practice!”

We became engrossed in practicing this new magic. I felt like we got more accurate the more bullets we fired. Reducing recoil was going to be important for improving accuracy even further.

Now that we were capable of firing bullets using fire magic, my first goal was complete.

There were some complications, though. It was important that you used mana to increase your physical strength right before the explosion, and the timing to do so was precise. Without enhanced strength, you wouldn’t have the power necessary to keep the muzzle from rising. It was likely you’d also be knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion.

The barrel of the gun greatly resembled that of a matchlock, but the firepower and accuracy were on another level. Magic combustion was capable of much more force than gunpowder ever was, and even more important, my bullets were of a much higher quality.

The harder a bullet was, the denser a surface it’d be able to penetrate. Tungsten was one of the hardest metals known to man, giving it a huge advantage over iron bullets.

Back in my original world, tungsten was often used in the shells of tanks, and it could easily cut through steel plates.

The aerodynamic shape of the bullets I’d made gave them low air resistance, and the rifling ensured high accuracy as well. There was no denying this was incredibly useful magic, but I was still going to need more firepower if I was to kill the hero.

My current level was probably more than enough to handle the average mage, but against the almighty hero, it was unreliable at best. That guy’s abnormal strength meant something on this level wouldn’t even scratch him if I shot him at point-blank range while he was napping.

With that in mind, I’d prepared something even stronger for today’s test.

The fundamentals were the same, but this magic was on a different scale. Such spells would be impossible to use for someone without my mana capacity.

“Lugh, what is th—? HUUUUUUUUH?”

My new magic began to take shape.

First, I produced the barrel. This one was much larger than the matchlock-sized original. Its size was around that of a tank cannon.

The barrel was about two meters long and very thick. Even the sight of it was intimidating. As it was impossible to carry by hand, it would have to be placed on a pedestal and staked into the ground.

The cannon was too big to create all at once, so I was forced to make it in three parts and combine them together using a transfiguration spell.

Next, I produced the ammunition that the cannon would fire.

Much like the barrel, the bullet was also quite massive. It ran around 120 mm in diameter, a common size for tanks. That was roughly fourteen times as long as a bullet used in a pistol. It was enormous, roughly the size of a milk bottle.

I took a deep breath, then cast the fire spell. When the smaller gun had fired, I’d tried my best to repress the force so the barrel wouldn’t rupture, but that wasn’t an issue with this cannon. Even if I put all my strength into the explosion, the barrel was thick enough to withstand it.

The inside of the cannon surged with a force that put the gun to shame.

“Dia, cover your ears,” I instructed.

“O-okay!”

A thundering shock tore through the air, and the cannon fired. Such firepower made the gun look like a child’s toy by comparison.

Despite being fixed in place with spikes, the cannon ended up being propelled backward, tearing up the ground along the way. The impact left a crater on the surface of the mountain where it landed.

“I knew that increasing the mass of the bullets and strengthening the explosion would create force on another level…but I didn’t expect it to be this strong,” I said.

In my previous life, I’d operated tanks and even fired shells, but this was an even greater power.

Unfortunately, I knew this still probably wouldn’t be enough to kill the hero if he used mana to withstand the explosion or if he had some kind of skill that enhanced his defense at all times.

Even then, there was a chance it could kill him if I caught him off guard. That meant I now had a card to play that could get the job done.

“What the heck do you plan on shooting with this?! This is clearly overkill!” Dia shouted.

“I might one day have to face an opponent who can’t be killed without this level of force,” I answered vaguely.

I checked the barrel and immediately spotted a problem. A crack had formed in the metal. I’d thought it would be thick enough to prevent that.

Should I use something other than iron for the barrel? …No, there’s no metal that makes more sense. Tungsten is much harder than iron, but it’s brittle. I need a hard metal with high tenacity.

This was going to be a problem if I could produce only raw metals. Alloys and processed metals would surely be stronger. As I thought about it, I reasoned that it should be possible to create alloys using magic. Were that true, I would have access to even more durable materials.

“I got the force I wanted, but there are still a lot of kinks to work out,” I explained.

“This is ridiculous… But firing that thing looked like it felt really good,” answered Dia.

“Want to try it?”

“Hmm, I hate to admit it, but I can’t. It would be impossible without your insane level of mana,” Dia said reproachfully. She wasn’t wrong; firing the cannon did consume a very large amount of mana.

“I now know the issues I need to work on with this magic. All right, how about some practice?” I proposed.

“Okay! Hmm-hmm-hmm, if I use magic like this, those barbarians won’t stand a chance!”

I wasn’t sure exactly what Dia meant, but it seemed there was some sort of enemy she wanted gone.

“Oh yeah, Lugh. You haven’t named these spells yet,” she added.

“Right. I’ll call the one you’re holding ‘Gun Strike’ and the big one ‘Cannon Strike.’”

“I’m not really sure what those words mean, but they sound cool!”

I could feel my past intuitions with firearms returning as Dia and I continued firing practice until she ran out of mana.

With no wind interference, it should’ve been possible to strike an immobile target from over three hundred meters away without issue. Normal assassination jobs would be a piece of cake with a gun like this.

In this world, where the concept of a gun didn’t even exist, being sniped from a distance would seem impossible to defend against.

“Only four more days… I want to stay here and do this forever,” Dia muttered solemnly.

It was true—there wasn’t much time left with her. There were still a number of things I wanted to do before she left.

Chapter 8 | The Assassin Promises to Meet Again

In the blink of an eye, Dia’s final day arrived. She was to leave that evening.

On the mountain behind the estate, we were testing magic designed to create alloys.

Up until now, we’d been able to produce only metals on the periodic table, but through modifying the formula for transfiguration, we succeeded in combining multiple metals—a very meaningful development.

Titanium was a high-quality metal. Its solidity was about the same as iron, and it was 40 percent lighter. It possessed a high melting point, enabling it to withstand very high temperatures, and it was very resistant to rust and corrosion.

It was just too bad that it wasn’t much harder than iron. On the other hand, harder metals were often either too brittle or too heavy. Thus, if you were to try to think of a better metal than titanium, finding an answer would be difficult.

A titanium alloy was a whole different story, however. It would allow you to keep all the strong points of titanium while increasing its hardness and sharpness.

By adding vanadium and aluminum, you got the beta titanium alloy.

While being twice as hard, it was still very light. It was also tough and degradation-resistant. In other words, it was the dream material. No other alloy could serve you better in a harsh environment.

Using magic, I combined titanium, vanadium, and aluminum into one. Just as I’d hoped, I produced beta titanium. I then transfigured the beta titanium into the shape of a knife. I wrapped the handle in leather and passed it to Dia.

“Dia, this is the fruit of our labor,” I said.

The girl slashed at a nearby tree.

“It’s light and really sharp! If we made swords with this and distributed them to our soldiers, we’d be unbeatable in battle!” she exclaimed.

“That would be a bad idea. We probably won’t cause much of a fuss if we use this purely for ourselves, but mass-producing them for others could lead to serious trouble… Worst-case scenario, we could end up being made slaves to produce those swords for the rest of our lives,” I refuted.

The majority of weapons in this world were still made of iron. If word got around that swords this strong existed, everyone would be scrambling to get their hands on one.

“Now that you say that, I get your point…but what if I only give one each to three knights whom I trust? I’m confident they can keep a secret, and I want them to have good weapons. I don’t want to see any of them die on the battlefield.”

Strong weapons to prevent people you care about from dying… I understood the feeling, and I was also a little jealous of those knights Dia valued so much.

“Even if you trust those knights, they likely have people they can’t lie to. The secret will definitely get out… But if you don’t tell anyone that they were made with magic, it should be okay. I’m repeating myself, but I want to keep these new spells we’ve developed a secret. Only use Gun Strike if you feel your life is in danger,” I cautioned.

“Okay, sounds good!” Dia nodded, then followed my example and performed the same incantation to produce the alloy. Her attempt turned out to be a failure, however. “Wh-what happened?” she asked.

“If I had to guess, I’d say it failed because your mental image of the alloy wasn’t strong enough. Unlike the spells where you simply produce a metal, when making an alloy, it’s important that you know exactly how you want to change the metals and exactly what you want the finished product to be,” I advised.

Unlike other spells, a caster’s mental image was important when creating an alloy. This was more complicated than simply changing a metal’s shape. It required a knowledge of the chemistry behind the concept.

“That’s impossible for me. I have no idea what to mix with what to create strong metals…,” Dia said dejectedly.

“I’d like to teach you, but first you’d have to know the basics of physics and materials science, so it would take a really long time. A month, at the least.”

That was taking into account Dia’s genius intellect. It would normally take five times as long.

“Aw, but I’m leaving today…,” she said with a frown.

“Can you extend your stay?” I asked.

“… I would if I could. I asked numerous times, but the answer is always no. I really want to stay here and keep making magic with you.”

I was happy to hear those words, so I decided to give Dia a parting gift. Conjuring up more titanium alloy, I shaped it into three copies of a kind of straight-bladed sword that was common to the region. As a bonus, I also created scabbards for them.

“You can take home the knife I gave you and these three swords as souvenirs. We’ll have to come up with an explanation for how you got them, though. Father will probably help us. Your father will likely find it strange that you brought home magic swords from the Tuatha Dé domain, and he’ll contact my father to ask if you stole them.”

“Hmm, yeah. That probably is what my father would do,” Dia replied. “Thank you so much for making these for me. You’re a really good kid, Lugh.” Happily, Dia hugged the swords.

“… They’re just a thank-you gift. If you hadn’t been my mentor, I wouldn’t have been able to become this skilled at magic in the first place,” I said.

“You have my thanks as well. If I hadn’t met you, I would’ve never thought to try creating new spells. I don’t think I’ve ever loved magic more than I do right now. I’m going to keep making new spells after I return home. You’re going to have to write them all down for me when we meet again!”

“That sounds like it’ll take forever, but I’d be glad to do it. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.”

I was certain that Dia’s ideas would be very different from anything I could ever imagine. It was sure to result in some really interesting spells. With her help, I would definitely be able to grow even stronger.

“Don’t think this is a one-way street, though! You have to teach me the spells you write, too!” Dia said.

“For sure. I’ll make new magic that’ll knock your socks off… Actually, I think I can use the eleventh spell you learned to make one with four hundred times the force of Cannon Strike.”

The idea was still in the theoretical stage, but if I could realize it, I’d be able to produce a very useful spell far stronger than anything else Dia and I had created thus far, and all it would require was an instantaneous discharge of my mana.

“… That spell already far surpasses the strength of ceremonial magic cast by a hundred people pooling their mana together, but I’m excited to see it. This was probably the most fun I’ve had in my entire life. I don’t want to leave, so let’s promise this won’t be the end for us.” Dia held out her pinkie finger, and I joined mine with hers. She smiled.

She was adorable. Perhaps this was love, or longing, or some other emotion I’d never experienced in my life. Whatever it was, the thought of Dia leaving pained me greatly.

I wanted more of these feelings that had been so absent in my first life.

Dinner was slightly earlier that evening, as the meal was meant to double as a farewell party for Dia.

Mother and I prepared a feast for the occasion, featuring the gratin Dia loved. A look of pure joy spread across the young girl’s face as she dug into the food.

“Dia, thank you so much for teaching our son magic over the last couple of weeks,” said my father.

“Lugh is a genius. He did most of the learning on his own. This is the first time I’ve ever felt jealous about someone else’s magical ability,” Dia replied.

“So Lugh is a naturally gifted mage as well. Our boy never ceases to make us proud.” My father laughed jovially and drank from his glass of wine.

“Um, Uncle Cian, while exploring the mountains with Lugh, I found these swords. Lugh said I can take them home as souvenirs. Would that be all right?” asked Dia. She and I then proceeded to explain to my father how we came by the weapons, sticking to a script we’d decided on earlier.

“Oh, that’s an unusual place to find swords. Mind if I take a look at one?” Father asked.

“Please,” Dia responded, handing him one of the blades.

Father removed the titanium-alloy sword from the scabbard and carefully examined it. His keen eye likely discerned the value of the magic weapon in mere moments.

“Huh, to think there was something so interesting just waiting to be found on that mountain. Perhaps there are more of them out there, maybe even buried in different mountains.” The intonation made it clear that my father was implying something.

Grasping the intent of my father’s words, I spoke up in answer. “Father, there are plenty more buried in that mountain. We should go search for them together next time. But I can guarantee you they are only on that one mountain.”

“I see. Only that mountain. If that’s the case, then I see no issue. I permit you to share these with these people you value, Dia.”

Essentially, my father had asked a coded message that inquired if I’d made the swords myself, if I could make more, and whether or not I was the only one who could make them. I’d answered affirmative to all.

“Wow, Lugh is giving a present to a girl! Our little boy is becoming so mature. Dia is so cute, too.”

“… Please, Mother, stop saying things like that.”

“Hee-hee-hee, I won’t stop. You’ve been getting cheeky lately, Lugh, and watching you squirm in situations like these has become too much fun. How about you become a child of this household, Dia?”

“U-um, yeah, I think that would be amazing.” Dia blushed and looked down. Mother was getting overexcited and saying embarrassing things again.

Still, I wasn’t about to object.

Dia was sure to grow into a beautiful woman, and she was superbly talented. Our development of new magic would progress much faster if we were together.

“I personally feel like that would be a bit hasty. In any case, I’m glad you became Lugh’s friend. The boy never goes outside, so I worry about him sometimes,” my father admitted.

He had a point. When I wasn’t training with my father, I was either studying or practicing my skills on my own. That was great for my physical and mental development, but it did nothing for my social skills. Perhaps making an effort to go outside and befriend other kids my age wasn’t such a bad idea.

“I’m happy to be Lugh’s friend. I’ll write to him after I return home, and I’ll visit as much as I can,” said Dia.

Mother and Father smiled pleasantly at us both, evoking a bit of bashfulness from me in the process.

With that, our last meal before Dia’s departure came to an end.

Later on, as the four of us were enjoying some tea, a servant approached and announced that Dia’s carriage had arrived.

The four of us went outside, and I watched as Dia climbed into the carriage. The horses took off at a slow trot.

“This was really, really fun! I’m definitely going to be back!” Dia shouted after poking her head out the window.

“I’ll be waiting for you,” I called back.

“Also, take this! Make sure not to forget me!” she said, and she threw me a pendant she often wore around her neck.

Attached to the necklace was a transparent stone. It shone with the purple mana stored inside it. I’d spent more than enough time with Dia to know what this was. She’d given me a Fahr Stone filled with her mana, even though the girl had previously said such a thing was forbidden.

“I won’t forget you!” I shouted.

“One more thing. Remember when you said you would do anything I want as thanks? I’m asking for that favor now. If I ever need to see you, promise you’ll drop everything and come running to me!” Dia proclaimed.

It was certainly no small ask, but I had no issue with it.

“I promise! I’ll come to you as quickly as I can!”

Standing outside, I watched the carriage until it had gone out of sight.

In these last two weeks, I learned how to use magic, developed my skill significantly, and acquired some very powerful new tools.

Resolving to do my very best, I was confident I’d create some really incredible magic that was sure to surprise Dia the next time I saw her.

That did raise the question of when I’d get to meet her again, though… Years could pass before we ever got the chance.

I didn’t want that. Regular meetings were better for my research. Also, I was going to miss her terribly.

The Viekone domain was over three hundred kilometers away, and the journey took you across two separate mountains.

Not only would I have to travel that distance on foot, but I’d also have to sneak across the border and then sneak into Dia’s estate without anyone noticing. Such a feat was sure to be difficult, but I knew it wasn’t impossible for me, and I could think of no better training.

This was something my first self would never have even considered doing, but I was beginning to enjoy this new side of me. I was no longer just a tool that lived to obey the orders of others. I did what I wanted of my own volition.

Chapter 9 | The Assassin Finds an Assistant

Winter was nearing, and I could feel the chill as I stalked over the mountain. Before long, this region would be buried in snow. Once that happened, this mountain would be impossible to cross.

We had to act soon to either stock some dry meat or store it salt-cured. Otherwise, dinners in the winter were sure to be depressing.

To make my tenth winter enjoyable, I’d been searching for something to keep myself occupied, but all I’d managed to turn up were animals.

“I can’t believe I couldn’t even find one person… If only my search had gone as smoothly as hunting.”

There was a limit to what I could do on my own, so lately I’d been searching for an assistant. The only requirement I had was that they needed to be a mage.

The trouble was that very few people not of noble birth or some offshoot lineage possessed mana, and convincing someone of high birth to be my assistant was difficult.

For that reason, I’d been searching for a commoner with mana, something that occurred only at a ratio of about one in ten thousand.

It was possible for a person to be a mage but live without being aware of it because they didn’t know how to use their mana. While difficult, finding that kind of person should have been possible by way of my Tuatha Dé eyes. Unfortunately, I hadn’t found a single mage, even after searching every nook and cranny of this region.

“… Maybe I should search other domains,” I muttered.

The sooner I could find an assistant, the better.

My assistant’s necessary education would likely take two years, and then they’d need another year of combat experience, meaning it would require three years to acquire a full-fledged aide.

Snow began to fall. I knew it had been cold, but I hadn’t expected snowfall this soon.

“Maybe I’ll go see Dia tomorrow.”

Not even I was capable of crossing two mountains and over three hundred kilometers on foot once the snow had piled up. I’d been going to see Dia around once a month, but that wasn’t going to be doable in the winter. I wanted to see her at least one more time before the weather made that impossible.

Suddenly sensing a presence, I drew my bow, then quickly realized it hadn’t been a beast I’d detected but a human.

To avoid other people, I’d chosen a dangerous part of the mountain known to be the home of bears and wolves. Wondering who in the world could’ve been traveling in such a dangerous area, I got a closer look.

It was a young girl, about the same age as I was.

Despite the cold weather, she was wrapped only in a thin layer of ragged cloth, and she was barefoot. Her shivers were obvious, and she was clutching her arms to her bony body as hard as she could.

The girl looked deathly fragile, and her skin and golden hair were thin and ragged. It seemed likely that she was suffering from malnutrition, but right now that was the least of her concerns. Death by starvation seemed right around the corner. I imagined she would’ve been quite pretty had she been healthier, though it was difficult to tell for sure.

How did she get this far up the mountain all by herself and without any equipment? It’s a miracle she’s still alive.

What was more surprising was the mana emanating from the girl’s body. I thought I’d checked every single person in the Tuatha Dé domain, but it turned out the mage I was looking for had been right here.

Judging from a few factors, it seemed like she didn’t know how to use mana, and as a result, it was secluded deep within her body. She herself hadn’t even noticed the gift she possessed, which effectively made her no different from a normal person.

“U-u-um, I—I haven’t done anything wrong, so please don’t hurt me,” she stammered.

“… Who are you? What are you doing so deep in this forest?” I asked.

“M-my village is very poor, and I was forced to leave so there would be fewer mouths to feed. If I try to return, I’ll just get driven out again… I remembered hearing a traveler say that the Tuatha Dé domain across the mountain is well-off, so I thought maybe if I made it there, then…” In the middle of her explanation, her stomach growled, and she staggered. I caught her before she fell to the ground and helped her stand.

She smelled terrible and was impossibly light.

“I want to hear your story, but first, please eat. You look like you’re going to collapse.” I smiled and produced a sandwich I’d prepared for my lunch.

The girl’s eyes widened. Having lived in a village so impoverished, she was driven out for the sake of others’ survival. Receiving food from another person probably seemed like an unthinkable act of kindness.

While she was standing there at a loss for how to respond, I poured warm soup in a cup, filled it with the contents of the sandwich, and broke up the bread on top to make bread porridge. The girl’s stomach was undoubtedly weak from not having eaten in a while. Preparing the food for her this way would make it easier on her stomach.

Eagerly, the girl grabbed the cup and held it tightly to her chest as if to prevent me from stealing it back. I let go of her, and she sat down on the ground and began eating the porridge.

There’d been rumors that the lord of the neighboring domain was incompetent, greedy, and heavily taxed his citizens, but I had no idea that the situation was this bad.

After she finished eating, the girl made a happy, content expression.

Her face flushed when she noticed I was looking at her. Now that her belly was swollen full of food, it seemed she had the energy to be self-conscious.

“So you say you were heading to the Tuatha Dé domain. I happen to be the son of the head of House Tuatha Dé.”

“… Th-that’s amazing. This means the fated encounter the goddess told me about in my dream turned out to be true,” the girl replied.

Had she really just said “goddess”? Was this overly convenient encounter the goddess’s doing? The idea that such a thing could’ve been true irritated me, but I wasn’t about to overlook such an opportunity.

“If it’s okay with you, how would you like to become my retainer? I have need of your strength,” I said.

Aside from the fact that she was a mage, I’d been evaluating her other potential uses. Her decision-making after being thrown out of her village appeared quite good.

She’d reasoned that returning to her home was a waste of time and energy, so instead she’d searched for a chance at prolonging her life. Being able to decide on the proper course of action in a crisis situation was an essential quality for an assassin. It wasn’t something you could learn later in life.

The girl looked up at me, and tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’m so happy. No one has ever told me that they needed me before. I’ve always been told that I’m worthless, that I’m nothing more than a hindrance. I was even abandoned by my home…but you say you need me…”

All of her pent-up emotions burst forth, and she began to weep uncontrollably.

I hugged her tight.

“I-I’m filthy,” she said.

“Yes, you are. But once we get you cleaned up, you’ll shine like new.”

“I-I’ll do my best. I really, really will…”

“That’s great. I need someone like you, so I hope you’ll work hard for me.”

The girl may have been disheveled, but to me, she was a diamond in the rough, yet to realize her potential.

She was a great find, and I would have to be sure to raise her carefully to mold her into the assistant worthy of an assassin like myself.

I awoke to somebody shaking me.

“Lord Lugh, please wake up!”

The hands gripping me were soft and warm.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a young girl with vibrant golden hair. She was twelve years old and wearing the clothes of a servant. Officially, she was my personal retainer.

The girl carried a charming presence about her that attracted the eyes of many visitors. Especially male ones.

“Lord Lugh, i-if you don’t get up, I’ll play a prank on you,” she said in a quiet voice while shaking me.

Well, that makes me want to get up less , I thought.

“Morning, Tarte,” I said.

“Good morning, my lord. It’s unusual for you to sleep late.”

“I pushed myself a little too hard yesterday.”

I hardly ever needed rest because of Rapid Recovery, but yesterday I’d gotten a little ambitious and tried something even my skills couldn’t keep up with.

“Breakfast is ready. It’s one of my best dishes yet!”

“I’m looking forward to it. Let’s go.”

“Yes, my lord!”

Together, the two of us walked to the dining room.

“Tarte, I had a dream last night of when we met two years ago.”

“… Th-that’s so embarrassing. I was only skin and bones back then. Plus, I was really unhealthy.”

“When I picked you up on that mountain, I never would’ve thought you’d become this beautiful.”

“…! I’m gonna run ahead and put some fruit in your yogurt, my lord!”

Over the last two years, that skinny little girl had gained a healthy physique and become quite lovely. She’d thankfully put some real meat back on her bones and was admittedly quite physically developed for her age.

As I sat down, Tarte served my breakfast and then stationed herself behind me.

“You don’t need to act as my retainer all the time. It’s really just an excuse to have you at my side,” I reminded her as I ate. The breakfast Tarte had prepared consisted of bacon and eggs, with yogurt on the side. It was a favorite dish of mine, made up entirely of ingredients from the Tuatha Dé domain.

“No, that will not do. I am your retainer! I do my best every day so that you can live a comfortable life!”

I’d designated Tarte as my retainer only because I needed her to be at my side at all times to support my work as an assassin. Her acting as a proper attendant was the best way to avoid others getting suspicious.

Despite the fact that I didn’t really expect it of her, Tarte had been giving both her jobs her utmost effort.

“Tarte, you’ve been doing an amazing job.”

She wasn’t particularly gifted in any one area, nor did she possess strong intuition. What she lacked in such areas, however, she made up for with hard, honest work. It was this aspect of her personality that allowed me to place my undying faith in her.

“I would’ve died if you hadn’t found me in that forest, my lord…and you said that you needed me. My life is yours, now and forever.”

The words were more than mere flattery. Tarte was speaking from the heart.

I stood up and lightly patted her golden hair. She took the opportunity to lean into me.

“It makes me happy to hear you say that. I do need you, Tarte.” She seemed to light up whenever I said that I need her, and it helped motivate her to push through even the most difficult training.

In just two years, Tarte had grown a lot as an assassin, and she’d put in no small amount of effort to become a fitting retainer for a noble.

When I’d first explained to Father that I was taking her in and raising her as my assistant, he’d made me promise two things.

The first was that I had to take full responsibility for Tarte’s upbringing. My father was not going to involve himself in her education. The second was that because I was going to have to share top secret Tuatha Dé knowledge with Tarte, I’d have to be the one to kill her if she ever went rogue.

It was likely that the first condition had been set knowing that I’d deepen my own knowledge through Tarte’s education. Agreeing to the second condition wasn’t much of a problem, either. It was dangerous to share family secrets with an outsider, after all.

It hardly mattered anyway, because I had full confidence in Tarte’s loyalty.

She was devoted to me because of the circumstances of our meeting. Additionally, I’d been using some techniques from my previous life over the last two years to help ensure her allegiance.

Tarte worshipped and depended on me.

“Lord Tuatha Dé asked for you to meet him in the study once you finish eating. He has an important matter to discuss with you,” Tarte said.

“Got it. Let’s go.”

I could think of only one thing such a request could entail.

Chapter 10 | The Assassin Receives a Test

Feeling a little tense, I met with Father.

“Lugh, how’s it going with Tarte?” he asked.

“After two years of training, she’s now around the same skill level as the best of the branch family. She’s not especially talented, but she is a very hard worker,” I explained.

“I see. Her training seems to be progressing smoothly, but that’s not what I’m asking.”

“… At this point, I’ve found nothing. I’ve been monitoring her consistently over the last two years, and discreetly searching through everyday conversation, but she really seems to be nothing more than a simple villager’s daughter,” I said.

“Perhaps I was overthinking things. I feared she may have been a spy sent to our family to steal our knowledge and technology,” my father admitted.

No matter how you looked at it, my first encounter with Tarte was definitely too good to be true.

I searched the entire domain for a mage and hadn’t turned up anything, but then a girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Father had been right to suspect a setup.

The possibility that Tarte was a spy planted by someone who knew I was searching for a mage had also occurred to me.

More than anything, I thought back to what Tarte had said—that a goddess had appeared in her dream and told her that she would meet me.

Over the past two years, there’d never once been any reason to doubt Tarte’s intentions. If she really was a spy, her ability had to surpass both my father’s and my own.

“Father, is that the only matter you wished to discuss?” I asked.

“No, that’s not the main reason I called you. Your next training session will be a special one, because it’s also a test. If you pass and overcome one final extended period of training, I’ll acknowledge you as a full-fledged member of the clan, and you can start taking on real jobs,” he said.

“I’ll gladly take the test. What do I have to do?”

“You will fight me. Winning or losing is irrelevant. Just show me what you’re capable of.”

What an appealing idea it was. At last I was going to put all my training to work and come at my father with everything I had.

The test began.

The stage for our duel was the forest, a suitable environment for assassins.

This was not a head-to-head fight of physical strength. The format of the duel was to use stealth to search for your opponent and catch them using a surprise attack. That meant that whoever found their opponent first would have an overwhelming advantage.

While doing my best to stay hidden, I concentrated as hard as I could on not leaving even the slightest trace of where I’d been.

I leaped to the side just as an arrow pierced the ground where I’d been standing a moment before. It was a short projectile, the kind shot from bowguns.

Shiny black poison was spread onto the surface of the arrow. The concoction was a powerful mixture that was strong enough to knock a normal person out for as long as three days if it so much as grazed the skin. Evidently, my father was quite serious about this test.

“… I was really confident in my stealth, too.”

I wasn’t even able to hazard a guess at how Father had detected where I’d been hiding.

However, judging by the trajectory and angle of the arrow, I was able to pinpoint the location he’d shot it from. It was a spot roughly fifty meters southeast from my current position.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, I enveloped myself in mana and ran. My mana capacity and instantaneous mana discharge were off the charts. Which meant my speed and strength were equally overpowered.

Normally, the mountain vegetation grew thick and made running difficult. I overcame this with a signature technique of mine. I kicked off a tree trunk and used a branch to propel myself into the air. The branch I landed on should’ve broken under my weight, but I covered it in mana the moment I landed, which was a highly advanced technique.

There he is. As soon as I spotted my father, I drew forth two knives from my pockets and threw them.

Knives were my primary weapon. I always walked around with multiple titanium-alloy knives on hand. Over the years, I’d come to shape them specifically for throwing.

The knives soared the through the air at nearly the speed of sound because I’d hurled them with mana-enhanced strength.

Father dodged one knife and knocked away the other, but I was still able to close the distance between us. I slashed at him with my reserve knife, but he blocked me by picking up and using one of the knives I’d thrown. He immediately chopped at my throat with his hand.

I narrowly dodged, then kicked. Father read me perfectly, catching my leg between his elbow and his knee and breaking it all in one motion.

Stifling a scream, I squirmed and threw him off me.

If I’d been unable to shake him off, that would have been the end of the test for sure. Scanning around, I was dismayed to discover that my father had vanished again.

I focused mana on healing my broken leg. With the help of Rapid Recovery, it would take only a minute to reconnect the bone.

“… He’s seriously a monster,” I muttered.

My strength and speed were both superior, plus I had the knowledge of two worlds at my disposal. Even with such advantages, my father held total control over the match, and I knew the reason. It was because he could read my movements.

Thanks to his total understanding of the human body, he could predict what I’d do next by following the motions of my muscles, heartbeat, pupils, perspiration, breathing, line of sight, smell, and the flow of my mana. Such was the power granted by the Tuatha Dé clan’s medical knowledge, purported to be the best in the world.

He was every bit as skilled as you’d expect the head of House Tuatha Dé to be.

Having trained under him for years, however, I could use all the same tricks. Given that I was able to combine what I’d learned in this world with what I’d learned in my previous life, my knowledge and options surpassed his.

Even so, my father was able to trick me with a fake-out that I should’ve seen coming. Conversely, he’d seen completely through my attempt to trick him. Though I was loath to admit it, we were likely separated by a wide gap in experience.

This was enough to shake the confidence I had in myself for having been the greatest assassin in my previous world. That just served to confirm how much I still had to learn and how much stronger I could become. I was definitely lucky to be the child of Cian Tuatha Dé.

“Get it together,” I said to myself. “I’m going to win.”

I closed my eyes and focused my senses. Pursuing my father would be playing right into his hands. Instead I was going to wait for him to make the first move.

We were both ready to kill.

As I’d hoped, he acted first this time.

A knife came flying at me. It was one of the titanium-alloy knives I’d thrown earlier.

I knocked it aside, but a second one instantly hurtled toward me from my blind spot. With incredible timing, I angled my body into a near-impossible position, just barely dodging.

I had no idea how Father was able to throw two knives from completely different directions at nearly the exact same time, but I did know that they were only meant to be a distraction.

The true strike came from above. While the previous two attacks had been detectable, Father had erased his presence completely before launching this one.

Father swung underhanded with my knife. I had no way to avoid it because of the awkward position I was in from dodging the first two blades he’d tossed. Thus, I didn’t avoid it. I twisted to make sure my father wouldn’t hit any vital points, and the knife pierced my shoulder. Ignoring the pain, I drew my hidden third knife and put it to Father’s throat.

“I win.” My declaration couldn’t have come any sooner. I was suppressing a violent nausea and dizziness. The knives Father had used were coated in poison. If I hadn’t built up a tolerance, I would’ve been knocked unconscious before I had a chance to strike back.

“Seems you’re right. I can’t believe I lost to a twelve-year-old…and you went easy on me, too. So much for my ambitions of being the most powerful Tuatha Dé in history.”

Father removed the knife, poured an antidote down my throat, and tended to my wound.

“I wasn’t going easy on you,” I said.

“Is not using magic and strengthening yourself with only the minimum amount of mana required to win not going easy on me?”

“That would have rendered the match meaningless. You said it before. This is a test, but it was also training. If I’d used my full strength and simply overwhelmed you, I wouldn’t have learned anything. That wouldn’t have been training.”

Before the match, Father had said I should think of this as training and that it made no difference whether I won or lost. It was clear he was telling me that it wasn’t winning that was important, but learning and improving my skills through practice.

A jovial smile broke through on my father’s face.

“That’s right, you got my message exactly. Seeing that winning wasn’t the most important thing was part of the test… It’s important that an assassin never loses sight of their goal. If you’d only been thinking of defeating me, I would have judged you unqualified in that aspect… With this, I have nothing left to teach you.”

“No, that isn’t true,” I refuted. “I’m still unable to match your skill. I only won because of a lucky gamble.”

“I’ve taught you everything I know, and you have shown me that you can put it into practice. Now all you need is experience. From here on, you need to move forward on your own two feet. I suggest you take initiative in searching for ways to become stronger… As promised, I will soon give you one last trial. It’s one that will grow your capabilities for use outside of battle.”

Whatever this final trial was to be, it likely wouldn’t involve medical science or assassination. Perhaps there was some other essential component of being a member of the Tuatha Dé family business.

After training, I took a bath, changed, and went outside with Tarte.

I was off to greet the citizens of the domain. As its future lord, I’d begun making an effort to do this with some regularity as of late.

“I made fertilizer and spread it over the fields just as you said, my lord. We had a bountiful harvest this year,” a commoner named Ruck said.

“I’m glad to hear it. I was wondering if you’d be willing to trade next time if I have any extra game, Ruck? Your green onions are delicious.”

“That would be great! But first, please accept these as a thank-you gift for the fertilizer. I would be honored for you to have some, my lord.” Ruck passed me a bundle of fresh green onions, which I accepted with a word of thanks.

More commoners came running in our direction.

“Mah cow…,” one man said through heavy panting. “Mah cow broke its back leg. Couldja please heal it for me?”

“Yes, lead the way,” I said.

We rushed over to the man’s cow. The treatment was simple, and I performed it free of charge.

In this world, the nobility held a lot of power. This was largely because they were the only ones who possessed mana, and they used that strength to protect the domain from monsters and other threats. Such great strength and protection often led to a near-religious devotion from citizens, which was why people obeyed the laws set by the ruling class and why they paid taxes.

Winning hearts took more than power alone, however. Earning my way into their good graces was important if I was to ever rule.

The sun had set by the time Tarte and I returned to the mansion.

“Nice work today, my lord. You’re always so popular,” Tarte said.

“I’m grateful for that, but I received way too many gifts. I’m not sure I can eat them all before they go bad…”

My basket was full of items given to me by local citizens.

Many had come to depend on me because of my elemental magic and what little I knew of agriculture from my past life. The former of which I’d been using to help out with some manual labor.

Just recently, I’d used my water affinity to refill a reservoir that had dried up due to drought, and afterward I’d ended up being treated like a god. There were nobles who taught their people that magic was sacred and never to be used for things like agriculture, but I didn’t see any reason not to use such a convenient power to help out.

“This bag is full, too.”

I opened my own bag, which was packed full of Fahr Stones.

Mana capacity increased the more you used mana. Knowing this, I’d always made an effort to discharge mana constantly at the rate that my Rapid Recovery allowed me to recover it. That seemed like a waste, however, which is why I started carrying Fahr Stones around.

Half a year ago, I’d conducted a thorough study on the Fahr Stone that Dia had left me as a parting gift and successfully created a spell to produce stones of my own. Since then, I’d been making as many as I could and storing mana in them.

Depositing the filled bag into storage, I started to load a new sack with yet unused Fahr Stones. I was confident that this large supply of weapons I was stockpiling would come in handy in the future.

Chapter 11 | The Assassin Receives His Final Trial

After I’d passed the test, Father started taking me along on jobs. I began assisting with both our public medical jobs and our top secret assassination missions.

This likely meant that he judged me capable enough to not be a burden during real jobs. My father’s brilliance in the field was incredible to watch, even more so than during training. Although he told me there was nothing left that he could teach me, I was sure I had more to learn from him.

In my previous life, I was never once captivated by the skill of another person, but every time I saw Father at work, I had to fight to contain my shouts of wonder.

What I was aiming for was a perfect marriage of the knowledge I brought from my previous life and the new knowledge I gained in this one.

“You performed amazingly on that job, too.”

“Yeah, it went well… It seems like you have a good understanding of why I’m taking you along on both medical and assassination jobs, Lugh.”

“Yes, it’s to get a sense of work in the actual field. It also provides good chances to study the composition of buildings, the placement of guards, and the strength of our targets, all of which may become useful during future assassinations. It’s not too often you get a chance to enter a noble’s estate.”

The estates of nobles were more than simple living spaces. They also served as fortresses to repel attacks from thieves and other threats.

If we were to one day sneak into a noble’s home as assassins, knowing the layout of their estate beforehand would be an incredible boon. Our role as doctors was convenient for this reason, as it allowed us to be invited into estates for a legitimate reason. Even if the noble we were visiting wasn’t our target yet, they could become one in the future.

“That’s correct. You really were made to be an assassin. To an almost scary degree,” my father said.

“I am your son, after all.”

For a second, I saw a somber expression cross Father’s face, and I was confused. Surely he couldn’t possibly have been troubled over raising his son to be an assassin. There’s no way someone as skilled as him would’ve allowed himself to have that kind of doubt.

We were on a medical job today, but my father had put on such an amazing display during an assassination three days ago that I was still trembling a bit.

Being the experienced assassin that I was, I understood the greatness of that performance. My father had made the whole thing look so easy that a normal person would’ve thought sneaking into a mansion and slitting someone’s throat while they slept was the simplest thing in the world. That’s what made Father so amazing. Jobs looked so effortless when he did them, no matter the difficulty.

“Lugh, I have yet to speak with you about your final trial, correct?”

“Yes. I’ve been curious about it.”

Back on the day of the test, my father had said that there would be one more trial.

“The Tuatha Dé clan receives many assignments like the previous one, where all we have to do is sneak into the target’s home and kill them. Those jobs are simple because it’s easy to avoid leaving behind any evidence. However, there are nobles who are more cautious and make infiltration more difficult by setting up many barriers and employing a strict security system. In these types of situations, we get near the target through other means, such as falsifying our identities to do things like attending a party that our target is sponsoring. Occasionally, there are also times when we can gain entry to a place because the target invites us there willingly.”

I often did the same things in my first life. I’d disguised myself as a chef, a college professor, a pianist, a coordinator, an architect, a card dealer, and more, all to get close to my mark.

“There are also cases where we are given an opportunity to enter a residence as doctors, which allows us to make it look like our target died of an illness. However, our target conveniently becoming our patient is a rare occurrence—and not something we can count on. For that reason, we have false identities. The most commonly used identities are chefs and merchants. Nobles usually have a personal chef, but if they are throwing a large-scale party, they will need more staff and will reach out to the culinary association. The culinary association will then dispatch top-class chefs to the noble’s estate… And we have a connection in the culinary association who can get us in as one of those chefs.”

“I’m surprised. I’ve never once seen you cook, Father,” I said. If he could pass for a cook at a noble party, he was probably more skilled than my mother. She’d surely be upset to know something like that. “So that means I will have to improve my skill as a chef.”

“There’s actually another practice that should take precedence. I want you to become a merchant. Nobles are creatures who are always seeking satisfaction, and they have the power and wealth to obtain anything they want. As a result, they have a habit of constantly wanting new things: a treasure from a land across the sea, a jewel more beautiful than anything anyone has ever laid eyes on, or a transcendent work of art. If a merchant carrying such items were to visit their estate, the lord or lady of the manor would welcome them with open arms…especially if they held a famed reputation.”

“And you have a connection who can help me obtain this reputation, Father?”

“Correct. I have three names: Cian Tuatha Dé, a baron of the Alvanian Kingdom; Tori Bahara, a chef from Alster; and Dowaf Garner, a merchant and head of the Calrad Company. All are entered in the family register and exist in records as though they were all real people. If someone decided to check for one of my fake identities and found that the family register was falsified, my secret would be out. It is for that reason that the moment I was born, Tori and Dowaf were born as well.”

“Does that mean I can assume I also have other identities in the family register?” I asked.

“Yes. The moment you came into this world, two other people appeared as well: Illig Balor, the illegitimate son of the head of the Balor Company, born of a prostitute, and Saphir Ogma, the son of a blacksmith.”

Falsifying the family register later would’ve led to too many inconsistencies in the records.

That’s why two false identities had been fabricated the moment I was born. This way, if someone checked the records, nothing would seem out of the ordinary. An unfortunate complication was that taxes needed to be paid for the fake identities, and my father likely owed large sums of remuneration to those families to not end up in their debt.

It was surely difficult, but going that extra mile was part of what made the Tuatha Dé clan the best of the best.

“Ogma the blacksmith aside, that’s impressive you got the head of the Balor Company to cooperate with falsifying the family register. The Balor Company is one of the most prominent trading companies even in the large commercial city of the Milteu domain,” I said.

Milteu is directly south of the Tuatha Dé domain, faces the sea, and houses the largest port city in the Alvanian Kingdom. It is the liveliest center of trade in the country.

Given the number of influential trading companies situated there, Milteu was a more powerful region than Tuatha Dé.

“He owes me a debt from long ago. I want you to live there for two years, until you turn fourteen. You will live as Balor’s son and train as a merchant. As far as the public knows, Balor put your other identity, Illig Balor, up for adoption to avoid upsetting his wife. You are returning to your father because his legitimate son has fallen ill and he needs you to take over his son’s duties… That’s the story.”

It was a perfectly natural excuse for Illig to suddenly return to his father. Spending two long years living there and studying commerce was a concerning request, however. Still, I trusted that my father wouldn’t have given me a pointless order. There had to be some deeper meaning to this.

“I will learn about the world, build personal connections, and prepare an information network. I will grow Illig’s name to be famous beyond the Balor Company, enabling myself to freely visit the homes of nobles. That is what I should try to accomplish during my two years at the Balor Company,” I stated confidently.

Father gave a satisfied smile. Milteu was the country’s largest center of trade thanks to its ports. Goods were brought there from around the world, and people gathered from all over the country seeking them. It was a place where I could gather all kinds of information. In many ways, Milteu was more the center of our country than even the royal capital.

Spending two years there would surely broaden my view of society, and I’d gain a deeper understanding of how the world worked.

Living as a merchant would be a great opportunity to make a variety of connections and grow my personal network.

Trading companies build up large communication webs as a way to ensure successful business. Such a resource was equally useful for an assassin.

If I was able to grow the reputation of Illig to the point where nobles delighted in hearing my name and would invite me into their homes without so much as a second thought, I would be free to use it as a pass to enter the home of any potential target.

This trial had four objectives. The first was to spend two years as Illig Balor and make him into a fully realized person. Second was to continue to acquire the abilities and tools necessary as an assassin to kill the hero. Third was to improve at gathering information from around the world. I still hadn’t found the hero, and I didn’t even know if he’d been born yet. The fourth and final objective was to gain capital, build information networks, and make personal connections, any of which were capable of being a more powerful weapon than pure combat strength alone.

Chapter 12 | The Assassin Departs

After Father told me about the trial, it was decided that I’d depart in three days.

Now that I’d been deemed ready to take on real medical and assassination jobs, I was to undergo a trial away from home.

Before my departure for this last challenge, my relatives gathered for a commemorative banquet in my honor.

I usually saw people from the branch family only once a month, but I made sure to remember all their names and faces. They were a valuable source of fighting strength. While the bloodline was thinner among the branch family compared to the head family, its members still possessed mana. If war broke out, we would end up leading the branch family into battle.

To reduce the risk of our secret being exposed, only the head family performed actual assassinations, but the branch family could undertake medical jobs.

I’d always tried to be friendly with the branch family, but a certain someone had been glaring daggers throughout the night of the banquet.

That someone was Ronah, a cousin four years my senior. He hadn’t so much as glanced at his food, but he’d certainly had plenty to drink.

Ronah suddenly stood up, downed the rest of his drink, and hurled the glass at me.

I’d been wary that he was going to try something all night, so I easily caught the glass and set it back down on the table. That only made him angrier, a vein now bulging from his forehead.

“I won’t accept it! I won’t accept that this little brat is the next head of House Tuatha Dé!”

It’d been obvious for a while that Ronah harbored such feelings. He’d always been quick to pick a quarrel with me during joint training sessions with the branch family.

Now that I was being celebrated like this, I thought it likely that his frustrations would finally boil over into some kind of outburst, and it seemed I was right. I felt a murderous rage emanating from Tarte, who was standing behind me. I signaled her not to act.

Ronah’s father looked like he was about to shout at his son, but Father said that wasn’t necessary, and he addressed Ronah himself.

“Hmm. Do you have some sort of objection to Lugh’s inheritance, Ronah?”

“I was supposed to be the heir after Ruff! There’s no fucking way a weak little kid like him can succeed you! I’m stronger than him! I should be the next head of House Tuatha Dé.”

Ruff was my deceased older sibling. Mother and Father avoided talking about Ruff to a mysterious degree, and I couldn’t even find any records, so I didn’t know their age or gender.

It seemed Ronah thought that the house would fall to him next, and that was why he hated me so much. Being so despised was hardly a pleasant feeling.

“So that’s what you have to say. Sorry, but you don’t have what it takes to inherit House Tuatha Dé. You’re fundamentally wrong about what’s necessary to succeed in the position. It sounds like you’re arguing that physical strength alone should decide the heir, but the Tuatha Dé are assassins. Only a third-rate assassin allows themselves to fall into situations where they’re forced to rely on combat. We only work on our combat prowess as insurance for the miniscule chance that something goes wrong.” My father’s words couldn’t have been more correct. If you ended up in a situation where you had to fight, that meant your intent to kill had been discovered. The assassination was almost surely a failure at that point.

That wasn’t to discount strength entirely, of course.

Strength could ensure a job got done even after being discovered. It also gave you a fighting chance of escaping if you were surrounded by guards, giving you the chance to recover and try again. No one would say it was worthless, but strength was not a top priority.

“Shut the hell up! What’s wrong with killing your opponent head-on like a man?!”

Ronah was giving me a headache. Our job was to discreetly remove those who were causing damage to the country and could not be dealt with using lawful means. On the small chance that our role as assassins was ever exposed, the royal family would deny any culpability and we’d be tossed aside.

It was unbelievable that my cousin didn’t understand that. Ronah’s father was holding his head in his hands. I felt sorry for the man.

“Such a statement provokes a number of responses. If, hypothetically, Lugh proves to be stronger than you, will you recognize him as the heir of House Tuatha Dé?” my father asked.

“Of course I will. But if I’m stronger, I’ll take that seat for myself!!!” Ronah declared. His eyes were sparkling, and the edges of his mouth were curled in a cocky smile. The young man was embarrassingly immature.

“Then so be it. See if you can defeat my son. Right now,” my father stated plainly.

“Wha—? …GAH!” Ronah gasped pathetically. I’d pushed a knife enveloped in mana against his throat.

His skin was pierced slightly, and blood began to trickle down. If I’d wanted to kill him, I could have. He would’ve died before realizing what’d even happened, before there was ever a chance for a real fight. That’s what it meant to be an assassin.

“Well then, it would seem that Lugh is stronger than you after all. Is this enough to satisfy you?” my father asked.

“U-u-uhhh…”

That was disappointingly abrupt. From where the conversation was heading, I’d guessed something like this would happen. I’d used the fact that Ronah’s attention was focused on Father to creep over and lurk in his blind spot. Then all I had to do was attack as soon as Father gave the signal.

“Th-that was unfair!” Ronah whined.

“That’s what it takes to be an assassin. We’re not knights. I believe I already made this clear, but it seems you have the wrong idea about who the Tuatha Dé are… Lugh, please put away the knife.”

I did as requested and placed the knife back in its scabbard. As soon as I did so, Ronah came at me again.

“WHO THE HELL SAID I LOST?!” He wound up for a punch, having now completely lost his temper.

… This is absurd. Why does he think this will prove him worthy to inherit House Tuatha Dé? I thought.

I dodged Ronah’s arm, twisted him onto my back, then flipped him over with a shoulder throw. He tried to get up, and I put him in a choke hold. He thrashed with all his might but couldn’t escape my grip. Tiring of his pointless resistance, I broke his arm.

“GAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

There really was no need for him to make such a fuss about all this. I’d made a point to break the limb cleanly so that it could easily be mended. With the use of his own mana and the Tuatha Dé medical treatment, a full recovery was likely to take only around two days.

“Surely you can see it now. Even in a normal fight, Lugh is stronger. I said strength isn’t the top priority, but it is still necessary. You may be a third-rate assassin if you need to rely on combat, but it does allow you leeway to attempt certain risks,” Father said.

An assassin should try their best to avoid contact, but your options were restricted if you weren’t able to fight at all. With any luck, this demonstration had served to break Ronah’s will and he wouldn’t be causing any more trouble.

“How about that, everyone. Isn’t my son impressive? I guarantee you all, he is a genius that tops me as both an assassin and a doctor. His actions just now were proof enough of that!” my father exclaimed, breaking the tension and lightening the mood in the room.

Ronah’s parents wore clearly troubled looks, but everyone else praised me as a worthy successor. Perhaps Father had intentionally egged on Ronah so that he’d have a chance to boast about my skill.

I made a note to follow up with Ronah later. There was a good chance he’d end up serving under me one day, after all.

At last, the day of my departure arrived. I prepared a gift and went to visit Ronah.

“What the hell do you want? Come to make some snide remark, have you?” he said acidly.

“Not at all. I just thought you’ve seemed down the last couple days.”

I chose to speak to him with a more casual tone, despite our age difference. It would’ve been unfitting to speak to him politely, given my higher rank.

“… I’m not feeling down. I’m just pissed at myself. I lost to a kid four years younger than me.”

“If you want to put it like that, Father lost to a kid thirty years younger than him,” I said.

“So the rumors were true, huh? The most powerful Tuatha Dé in history was defeated by a twelve-year-old. I never stood a chance.” Ronah smiled self-deprecatingly.

“That’s true. There was no way for you to defeat me in battle…but you don’t have to. Once I become head of this house, I’m going to bring great prosperity to House Tuatha Dé. If you serve me, I promise to treat you well. You lost to me, but you’re still strong. I watched the young knights’ tournament in the royal capital last year. Of the twenty contestants, I can only say that four of them were stronger than you. I want your service, Ronah. I expect great things of you as a knight of House Tuatha Dé.”

Knights were a standing army made up of second and third sons who didn’t stand to inherit their father’s seat, plus the occasional rare mage born as a commoner. In order to be made a knight, you had to overcome strict trials.

Their combat training was far more intense than that of nobles, who were only called to battle in times of emergency.

Not only was Ronah able to hold his own among those twenty young knights at the tournament, he was almost certainly better than most of them. While an overly simplistic thinker and not suitable for assassination work, he would surely be an asset to House Tuatha Dé in the years to come because of his strength.

“Hey, is that supposed to be praise?”

“Yeah, it is. And I’m inviting you into my service.”

“You’re an idiot, you know that? Who would be happy to be told that there are four people the same age who are stronger than them? I guess I appreciate the sentiment, though. I prefer that to flattery just meant to cheer me up.”

“This is for you,” I said, handing my cousin something.

“… This is a sword? It’s unbelievably light. It’s nice and sharp, too. Is this a magic blade or something?”

“Yeah, a sword suits you better than a knife. Both in terms of personality and physical makeup, you’re more suited to a soldier’s position than assassination. Our house has room enough for knights as well as assassins. One of these days, I’d like you to use that sword for me.”

Ronah hung the sword from his hip and let out a deep sigh.

“Get out!” Ronah cried.

It seemed my entreaty had failed. Judging by the kind of man Ronah was, I’d thought for sure this sort of appeal would’ve worked. I put my hand to the door.

“When you return in two years, I’m going to be much improved. I understand now that I’m not fit to be an assassin. I’ll become the knight you want me to be, so you go do your job,” Ronah called as I made to leave.

“Sounds good. Let’s both do our best,” I replied.

Apparently, people like Ronah weren’t good at speaking honestly about their feelings. I made a point to remember that.

At any rate, I’d just gained a talented young knight. I was sure to put him to good use once I became head of my family.

The next day, I was seen off by my parents and citizens of the domain before departing in a horse-drawn carriage.

“You don’t need to come with me, you know. Even without me here, I can entrust your training to the branch family. And Milteu is a city of commerce. It’s very different,” I said.

“That doesn’t matter! I am your retainer, my lord! No matter where you go, I will look after you.”

Tarte had insisted on coming with me. She was panting after loading some heavy luggage.

As it happened, my mother called Tarte to her room and had a long talk with her last night. It’d probably been to discuss the mom of the identity I was slipping into. I’m sure my actual mother had filled Tarte’s head full of nonsense.

Before I boarded the carriage, I’d used dye to conceal the silver hair I’d inherited from my mother. For the two years that I was going to be living as Illig, I couldn’t risk showing any hint of my true self.

“I’m so excited for Milteu, my lord,” Tarte said.

“Me too,” I replied. My mind was abuzz with curiosity as to what kind of place Milteu was.

I’d promised Father that in these two years I would learn about the world, make personal connections, build an information network, and become a successful merchant.

The goal was to become such an exemplary trader that my rivals would hire assassins to try to eliminate me. It would be fun to be on the receiving end of an assassination attempt for a change, and it would give me an opportunity to learn something from my assailant.

Under normal methods, it was impossible to achieve such a level of accomplishment in only two years, but that’s precisely what I found exciting. I’d already started to form a plan that would take Milteu by storm.

I vowed to do my best to leave my mark on the world as Illig Balor.

Chapter 13 | The Assassin Becomes a Merchant

The first six months of my time with Tarte in the city of Milteu passed rather quickly.

I’d been living not as the son of the baron of the Tuatha Dé domain but as Illig of the Balor Company.

Hoping to further conceal my identity, I’d taken to wearing glasses in addition to dyeing my hair.

I’d also completely changed the way I dressed, my tone and voice, and my mannerisms and expressions. No one should’ve been able to tell that Illig and Lugh were the same person.

Truthfully, I did have some trouble adjusting to my new life at first. Tuatha Dé prospered thanks to its incredible medical capabilities, but that wealth really only extended to the head and branch families. Most of the region consisted of small villages that subsisted on agriculture.

The scale in Milteu was drastically different. Where goods gathered, all kinds of people converged.

Merchants, carpenters, alchemists, blacksmiths, and apothecaries all existed together in one place. With such a great variety of people came a great variety of goods, which rapidly grew the economy. That then led to more people moving to Milteu and continuing the cycle of constant economic growth.

After spending half a year in such a city, I’d come to like it. My hope was that such a place would one day become an asset for Lugh Tuatha Dé as well.

If I managed to open a store in this city and did business in one of the world’s largest markets, there was no doubt that the Tuatha Dé domain would enjoy greater wealth. Our cover as assassins could be blown at any point. If that ever happened, the family was going to need a new source of revenue.

I arrived at my destination, the office of the head of the Balor Company.

“Sorry for getting here late, Father,” I said.

“No, no, that’s my fault for calling you so suddenly,” Balor replied.

“What kind of business do you have with me today?”

Illig was an illegitimate son who Balor put up for adoption to avoid upsetting his wife. Once Balor’s legitimate son fell ill, Illig was called to offer support and was now undergoing education to become a merchant. Such is the story devised to explain how I, as Illig, came to work at this company.

True to the tale, Balor was giving me thorough training on the fundamentals of being a merchant.

For the first three months of my time in Milteu, I worked as an employee at the company’s most successful store. The environment was so busy and hectic it may as well have been a battlefield.

I was yelled at often in the beginning, but I learned from my mistakes and got better at the job over time. I used knowledge from my previous life to improve my performance, and I came to be praised by my coworkers for my ability to smoothly handle any situation.

Once I got used to working in a store, I was transferred to headquarters.

The Balor Company owned a number of retail stores throughout Milteu, though the goods sold in all of them were largely the same.

It was the job of headquarters to judge demand and decide how much of each item each store should stock. Given the choice, I think I would’ve said that working at headquarters suited me better.

Predicting future product demand by using distribution and information networks spread across the world was extremely difficult work, but I found it very rewarding. Discovering attractive new products and negotiating with suppliers to procure them was exciting.

My improvement had been rapid because I enjoyed the work so much, and I’d even risen up in the company to work as Balor’s right-hand man.

It was a good position to be in. I could procure information from literally anywhere. The world became a much smaller place when you looked at it from the perspective of the flow of commerce.

“I’ve been very impressed by you, Illig… So much so that I’ve found myself wanting to entrust the entire company to you,” Balor admitted.

“That’s out of the question. Beruid is heading toward recovery. My turn will surely never come,” I said.

“Even that I owe to you. I brought you in to repay my debt to Cian…but you’ve become so skilled as a merchant while treating my son’s illness. It seems I’ve only benefited further from this arrangement, and my debt has increased.”

Studying as a merchant wasn’t the only thing I’d been doing in Milteu. I’d also been treating the illness of Beruid, Balor’s son.

An examination had revealed that Beruid was suffering from cancer. Thankfully, it was still in the early stages, so I was able to remove the cancerous cells from his body. He was well on his way to a full recovery. This world’s level of medical treatment was rather primitive, and the Tuatha Dé were the only people capable of performing surgery. As a result, even something like appendicitis was regarded as an incurable death sentence.

Beyond the lack of proper medical technology, there was another reason why surgeries weren’t performed in this country. Namely, because the bishop called putting a sword to skin in the name of treatment repulsive. Despite that, the Tuatha Dé still often performed regular surgeries, and I doubted that Beruid would complain.

“Father, I assure you I’m getting plenty in return. I’ve learned a lot here.”

I’d seen many things here that I never would’ve been able to experience living as a noble in a remote region like Tuatha Dé.

I’d also been making use of merchant information and distribution networks to gather much-needed data and goods. If I had access to the distribution network of the world’s leading trading company, there’d be nothing beyond my grasp.

“I’m glad to hear it. I’m a businessman through and through. I’d be ashamed if I had nothing to give you in return for saving my son’s life and for helping so much with my business. It puts me at ease to know that this has been a valuable experience for you, even if this isn’t exactly how I envisioned paying back that debt. All right, this preamble has gone on long enough. I’ve called you here today to give you a new job. Take a look at these.” Balor handed me a map and the blueprint of a building. The location of the store wasn’t far from the thoroughfare, and it was about the size of a large convenience store. It took an enormous amount of money to secure a shop of this size in Milteu, to say nothing of such a good location.

“The spot and capacity are great. You could do anything with a place like that,” I assessed.

“That’s right. The store we had there went out of business, unfortunately. So far, you’ve only been involved with our stores that sell daily necessities and foodstuffs, but the Balor Company is also expanding into other fields such as restaurants, weapons, armor, pharmacies, and more. This place was a liquor store, but it ended up failing.”

The Balor Company had no other such alcohol specialty stores, which meant…

“This is a concept store. Did you use this to test breaking into the liquor business and try out experimental products not offered by existing competitors?” I inquired.

Aside from simply increasing their number of existing stores, the Balor Company was also attempting to pioneer new fields. This was probably one part of that effort.

If the entire focus of a business was simply to increase the number of locations without ever offering anything new, the growth of the company would eventually stall.

The concept store method allowed you to try your hand at new fields, and if the store failed, you could back out before there was any serious damage to your profit margins. If the experiment was a success, then more stores would be made based off that model.

“Yes, that’s right. Competition among stores selling groceries and daily necessities is fierce, which makes growth difficult, and weapons sales have been slow because there’s no war on. The same goes for medicine. Lately, monsters have been appearing more frequently, and if their numbers continue to increase, the demons will likely be reborn. Such an advent would produce a spike in weapon and medicine sales, but we can’t afford to simply rest our hopes on that and do nothing. The Balor Company needs to expand into a new field with high growth potential. That said, we’ve already tried and failed three times. Expansion is easier said than done.”

Balor’s words reminded me that I’d recently heard someone in management had been demoted. The failed concept store probably had something to do with it.

“Can I assume you’re about to hand this concept store to me?” I asked.

“That’s right. I have a feeling you have what it takes to breathe fresh air into this company,” Balor confirmed.

“I’ve only been here for half a year.”

“Normally, I would never entrust something this important to someone so soon, but you’ve accomplished an extraordinary amount in your short time here. I’m going to share a valuable tip. While it’s important for a merchant to have the ability to read demand and market prices, know how to negotiate and deal with customers, and the like, the most important thing is your ability to evaluate other people. We are not gods. There is only so much any individual is capable of. However, if you have the ability to evaluate the talent of others and entrust them with work they can handle, you’ll find true success. Knowing you don’t have to do everything yourself is what makes a true merchant.”

They were meaningful words, especially so because Balor was the proof of that concept. If he’d been fixated on doing everything by himself, he probably never would’ve gotten beyond the success of one store. Instead, he’d picked other people to entrust businesses to, and now he managed dozens of shops and had amassed an enormous fortune.

“Thank you, Father. I’ll keep that in mind. How long will I have to prepare, how large will my budget be, and what kind of personnel will I have?”

“You’ll have one month for planning and one month for reconstruction. The budget can be as large as you like. I’ll prepare the necessary personnel. I have one condition, however. Do not damage the Balor name. Think you can handle it?”

I was very excited about this opportunity. I came to Milteu to gain tools helpful for my work as an assassin while growing my reputation as a merchant. Success with this opportunity Balor was offering would assist with both of my objectives.

“I can. I’ll do my best.”

“I wish you luck. As a side note, if this project succeeds, we’ll expand the concept store into a chain. Five percent of the profit from those stores will be paid to you in perpetuity. Don’t mistake this for special treatment. Compensating employees responsible for breaking us into a new market is the Balor Company way.”

“Now I’m even more motivated.”

You could never have enough money, and I was going to need a lot of capital to assemble all the goods, personnel, and information I needed to kill the hero.

“Then I’ll pray for your success, O son I never knew,” Balor said.

“I won’t betray your confidence. I know this is going to work.”

“Oh-ho, it seems like you already have a plan.”

“Of course I do. No merchant could live here for half a year and not think about what kind of business they themselves would start. I’d been working on a proposal for you even before I was given this opportunity,” I admitted.

“… I really regret that I can’t make you my proper successor. You couldn’t be more gifted as a merchant,” Balor replied.

After exchanging our good-byes, I accepted the documents and my sizable budget, then departed.

My store would be an unquestionable success, and I was eager to seize this opportunity to grow my name not just as a member of the Balor Company, but as Illig Balor the individual.

Chapter 14 | The Assassin’s Little Sister

Pondering my new store and its featured product, I returned to my home in Milteu.

I’d been renting a middle-class house in the suburbs and living with two other people. It was a fairly spacious place considering the price. It even had a courtyard, which was incredibly useful for training.

When I opened the door, I heard two sets of footsteps come my way.

“Welcome home, Master Illig.”

“Hello, dear brother.”

One of them was Tarte, my retainer who came to this city with me from Tuatha Dé. The other was Maha, a rational and composed girl the same age as me. She was slender and had distinctive, shiny blue hair.

Even in the house, none of us used my real name, and I never removed my disguise or even dropped my adopted speaking tone. I got a lot of work-related visitors, so there was never a moment when I could let down my guard.

“Sorry for getting back so late. Father assigned me a new task. I’m being entrusted with a store. One that will be completely different from the other businesses the Balor Company runs. It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s exactly why I’m so excited,” I declared.

“You’re amazing, Master Illig! You’ve only been here for half a year, and you’re already being given such important work,” Tarte praised.

“Your prowess makes me proud to be your little sister. I’ll have to brag about this at the store tomorrow,” Maha added.

“Actually, I’d rather you two keep this quiet until the project starts in earnest,” I requested. The two girls nodded in understanding.

Maha calls me her big brother, but she didn’t actually have any relation to the Balor family. She was a girl I rescued here in the city.

I’d been thinking for a while that I was going to need a team on my assassination jobs, and she was a candidate I’d picked out for that very purpose.

The minimum requirement for anyone on my team was that they had to be a mage.

Normally, mages were born only to two parents with mana, but there was a small chance a child possessing mana could be sired from parents who didn’t have any.

Milteu’s population far surpassed that of the Tuatha Dé domain, so the likelihood of finding a mage among the common folk was proportionally higher. With that in mind, I’d begun searching for someone with mana soon after I’d arrived, and I found Maha.

The orphanage she grew up in was run for the sole purpose of profiting off the orphans by collecting subsidies from the city. The children there were given the bare minimum amount of care needed to ensure they wouldn’t die, and they were even sometimes abused.

Adopting Maha turned out to be rather easy. The director of the orphanage took her in only to make money, so all I had to do was procure him twice the amount he would have received had he supported her until adulthood, and he quickly agreed to let me take her.

At twelve years old, I was too young to adopt an orphan, but given that I worked at the Balor Company, and Balor was willing to sponsor me, I was able to meet the requirements, and Maha, Tarte, and I had started living together.

“Allow me to take your jacket, Master Illig,” said Tarte.

“Ah, please,” I answered, and Tarte nimbly took my jacket and put it away.

Tarte being here gave me more time to focus on what I needed to do, and while I’d never admit it out loud, her presence helped me relax, too.

My heart had been growing since I became Lugh, and I was beginning to feel new emotions that I’d never experienced in my past life.

Unfortunately, this also came with a weakness. There were times when I felt lonely, discouraged, and anxious. So long as Tarte was by my side, however, I was able to drive away those emotions.

Having a family truly was a wonderful thing.

“Tarte and I prepared dinner together tonight, Illig.”

“I’m looking forward to it. Your cooking never disappoints, Maha.”

“You’re right to look forward to it. This is one of my best dishes.”

Four months had passed since Maha first came home with me.

The abuse she’d suffered at the orphanage had left her feeling very weak. The poor treatment had also robbed her of the ability to trust most other people…which was exactly what made taking her in so easy. No one yearned for someone they could trust more than a person in that position.

I’d also been influencing her to instill affection and loyalty toward me using the same conditioning I’d employed with Tarte. As a result, she came to adore me as her older brother.

“Is work going well at the store?” I asked.

“Of course. I would never forgive myself if I did anything to sully your reputation, Illig,” Maha replied.

After seeing to her education, I arranged for Maha to work at the Balor Company during the day. She’d been born into a merchant family and had received a fairly decent education before her parents had been killed during a burglary, so she was already quite intelligent.

Unfortunately, Maha had no sense for combat, so she wasn’t suited for my assassination squad.

She was best put to use gathering information, procuring supplies, and offering logistical support. At the very least, though, I thought it best to train her to be able to defend herself.

“I think you have what it takes to become my right-hand woman as a merchant, Maha.”

“If that’s what you desire, dear brother, I promise I’ll live up to your expectations.”

Setting up Maha to work at the Balor Company was one step of my overall plan. After I left Milteu, I planned to have Maha stay behind.

I’d hand over to her the information network I was building, along with much of my work at the Balor Company. From then on, I’d be able to have her send me needed information and any goods I required while I was back in Tuatha Dé.

If Maha could learn the fundamentals of business, she’d be able to become my administrative assistant. There was a good chance that I’d entrust the operation of my brand to her in the future.

Maha placed soup, meat, and bread onto the table while humming cheerfully. She stared intently at me as the three of us started eating. It was obvious that she wanted to know what I thought of the cooking. I took a spoonful of soup to my mouth.

“Maha, the pork belly steak and the soup are delicious. Did you add the rendered fat to the soup?” I asked.

“That’s exactly right. This is excellent pork belly, so I couldn’t let the fat go to waste,” she replied.

“I was entrusted by Master Illig to look after Maha, but I’ve learned so much from her that I’m starting to lose confidence in myself. But I won’t lose. Especially not at cooking! Please try the pumpkin pie I baked!”

Maha and I laughed watching Tarte get competitive.

I’m glad I was able to find Tarte a friend her age.

Tarte had excellent reflexes, vision, and body control, all of which made her fit for my task force. On the other hand, she wasn’t the best thinker, and she could be narrow-minded. As such, she was ill-suited for logistical support.

I found it quite interesting to see how cleanly she and Maha fit into their respective roles.

It was likely that during future assassination jobs, Tarte and I would carry out the actual strike, while Maha would provide support.

The three of us engaged in idle chatter as we enjoyed our dinner.

“By the way, Illig, what kind of store do you intend to open?” Maha asked.

My decision had long since been made, but there were still some things I needed to get in order first. Specifically, I needed to meet two conditions.

First, I had to be sure the store would turn a profit. That much was unconditional. This business could not be allowed to fail.

Second, I wanted to sell products that appealed to nobility. That way the business would be valuable to my assassination work.

“My store is going to be aimed at women. I’m going to primarily focus on cosmetics, and I also want to sell confections that are sweet and keep well. That said, if I introduce too many products at once, it may hurt my sales, so I think I’ll just focus on cosmetics at first.”

The need to buy things was stronger in women than in men.

This was especially true for the daughters and wives of noble families, many of whom had a penchant for beauty products and sweet foods.

Beyond that, they loved being treated like they were special. If I became the representative of the world’s leading makeup brand, I’d be able to visit the homes of noble families under the guise of bringing cosmetics and confections. They’d welcome me with open arms without so much as a second thought.

“A store selling cosmetics and sweets sounds wonderful!” exclaimed Tarte.

“That sounds like a good idea. The economy has been in good shape lately, and demand for cosmetics is high. However, there are a lot of cosmetics stores in Milteu already. You will need a very strong product, and even then, it’d likely be difficult to make… Consumers are careful with beauty products because you can’t afford to be adventurous with what you put on your skin. Without a really enticing reason, most women are going to stick with the popular brands,” Maha explained.

The girls seemed to like my idea. Once I had some trial products ready, I decided to have them try the items for me.

Maha did make some good points, however. There was no more difficult market to break into than cosmetics. When it came to beauty products, brand was more important than quality.

“I’ve given that some thought already. I’m going to make a product so attractive, the barrier of entry is not going to be a concern,” I replied.

“Which means you’re keeping it a secret,” Maha deduced. “I’m looking forward to seeing what you have planned.”

“If we can help make it better, please let us use it!” Tarte added.

I was coming to enjoy our dinners here in Milteu. The liveliness reminded me of my dinners back in Tuatha Dé. Despite running an assassination trade, the Tuatha Dé were a very warm family. My meals here with Tarte and Maha were becoming a very similar sort of environment.

Things were certainly warm and cozy now, but when I’d first adopted Maha, she’d been depressed and afraid. Things were tough for a while. We had what we did now because of the struggles we’d endured during those rougher times.

As we were finishing up dinner, a knock came at the door, and I called for the visitor to enter.

“Hey, everyone, it’s me again! Sorry for dropping by so late.” It was Balor’s son, Beruid. He was my half brother, at least while I was still Illig, and was three years older than me.

The recent surgery I’d performed on Beruid had saved him from cancer, a disease that was otherwise a death sentence in this world.

Despite not yet being fully recovered, he still stopped by nearly every day with a box of sweets for Tarte and Maha.

“Good evening, Beruid. You have some excellent timing. We were just about to start class,” I said. The main reason he came over was to sit in on the class I regularly held for Tarte and Maha.

Assassination required no small amount of knowledge and skill. To that end, I’d been teaching Tarte and Maha lessons on pharmaceuticals, physics, psychology, economics, and law. Little by little, they were gaining the knowledge they needed to serve me.

When Beruid had come by the house for his treatment, he’d happened to catch one of the classes and took great interest in them.

“What are you teaching today?” Beruid asked.

“We’ll be continuing yesterday’s physics lesson,” I answered.

“That sounds fun. I really like physics. You can learn the reasoning behind the naturally occurring phenomena that we all take for granted every day, and learn how to realize those phenomena deliberately.”

“That’s the thrill of physics.”

“Oh yeah, congratulations on being entrusted with a new store. I heard about it earlier today. That’s a job only given to the most promising young employees in the company. If you’re successful, you’ll guarantee yourself a spot in management one day. If you ever need any help, just ask,” Beruid said with a smile.

The only person who knew the secret of my true identity was Balor, so Beruid truly thought I was a bastard child. You would’ve expected someone in his position to feel jealous of a highly talented younger brother who suddenly showed up out of nowhere and received special treatment from his father. I’d expected some amount of resistance. Surprisingly, Beruid had taken quite a liking to me, even going so far as to seek out my instruction.

He was a difficult person to figure out, but adding him to the class didn’t really take any extra effort on my part. I couldn’t let him see the training that went on after class, of course, but I didn’t mind if he listened during the lesson.

I didn’t dislike him…and he could be useful.

Beruid was a skilled merchant, and he was the future head of the Balor Company. Being on good terms with such a person was hardly disadvantageous.

“All right, let’s start today’s lesson,” I said.

I gave them each some handouts with today’s material.

Teaching people in this manner was a lot of fun. My students were eager to learn, which helped make the lessons all the more rewarding. As I went through the day’s education, I continued to think about my cosmetics store and my featured product.

While the item had been relatively commonplace back in my previous world, no one had ever seen it in this one.

After I introduced it to the market, it would surely become an essential part of the beauty routines of all women in this world.

The profits I would bring in were guaranteed to be astronomical, and soon there would come a day when everyone knew the name Illig Balor.

Chapter 15 | The Assassin’s New Product

I’d decided to stay at home during the time I usually went to visit headquarters so I could focus on preparation for the new store.

Relying on my memory, I was laboring to create a cosmetic that had yet to be invented in this world.

My recollection of the recipe was a little vague, but with my knowledge of chemistry, I had the ability to reverse engineer the ingredients based on their effects. This was actually an item I’d made before.

I’d made it as a gift for my mother once when she’d been upset.

I had many more resources available to me in Milteu than I did when I’d made this cosmetic back in Tuatha Dé, so I’d been improving the recipe.

Before noon, I was able to put together a list of needed ingredients to make the trial product.

Turning in the list to the Balor Company’s supply department would mean they wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow night at the earliest.

“I expected these to arrive tomorrow…”

Not long after noon, the materials I’d requested had been delivered, despite some of them being scarce and difficult to procure.

“Think of it as a message from Balor telling you to hurry up.”

So Balor is responsible for this. If he knew that I was requesting ingredients for a trial product, he’d probably summon me tomorrow and ask for a blueprint for the store.

Balor liked to move fast. He was the type who wanted prototype products made quickly rather than flawlessly. Often, he’d made it clear that he preferred his employees just explain their ideas to him, rather than spend time to make a carefully planned presentation.

This style of management allowed Balor to quickly dismiss ideas he thought would fail, and if he decided a concept had promise, he would have his company support the product while it was still being developed.

“… Merchants are a little scary,” I muttered.

Without a moment to spare, I got to work. Among the delivered ingredients were high-quality olive oil, clean underground water, pleasant-smelling essential oils extracted from different types of herbs, and a variety of medicinal compounds.

With these, I could finally manufacture my killer product.

Olive oil and water obviously did not normally mix on their own, so I had to procure another substance to get them to blend.

At last it was time to start crafting. The various herbs I’d procured afforded me the ability to create an infinite number of variations. Finding a good balance between aroma and effect promised to be quite difficult. I wouldn’t reach the best combination by the end of the day, but I was sure to have a high-quality product before meeting with Balor tomorrow.

Come the next day, I made my way to Balor’s office to see him at the appointed time.

Yesterday I’d contacted Balor, telling him that I’d completed a trial run of my store’s main product and that I wanted to talk. I also asked him to bring his wife, Mira.

When I entered the room, Balor grinned and gave me a slight bow, while Mira narrowed her eyes in displeasure. It was to be expected; she believed me to be her husband’s illegitimate son, sired from a prostitute.

“Father, Mother, thank you for making the time to meet with me today,” I said.

“I knew you were a fast worker, Illig, but I never would’ve expected you to have your featured product ready in just two days,” Balor said.

“This product had better be something truly amazing. If you went out of your way to call me here for something boring, I’ll never forgive you,” Mira snapped.

Having someone show such open malice toward me was almost refreshing. It was far preferable to an enemy who smiled to your face and then stabbed you in the back.

Mira was hiding her face under a scarf. I’d asked her to come today without wearing makeup, and someone with her level of vanity would never have allowed her face to be seen that way.

“I assure you, my product will live up to your expectations. The main offering at my new store will be cosmetic products,” I explained.

“I’m not thrilled to hear that. When it comes to cosmetics, brand matters more than quality. It’s a very difficult market to break into. Even if you manage to land a hit in the industry, products don’t stay popular for very long, making long-term profit difficult.” Everything Balor said was true—I would’ve expected nothing less from such a successful businessman.

“That’s true… For existing cosmetic products anyway. The purpose of makeup is to enhance a person’s physical attractiveness, but that comes at the price of damaged skin. Laboring with soap to remove makeup before you go to bed at night results in damaged skin the following morning. Isn’t that right, Mother?”

“… I won’t deny it, but I still want to look presentable.”

In this world, lipstick, foundation, blush, and many other such products were widely used, but there was no custom yet for using moisturizer or face lotion.

In other words, while the concept of using beauty products existed, the idea of using something to protect the skin from the damage of those products did not.

If you applied makeup without first using moisturizer or face lotion, it would harm your skin. Removing cosmetics from the face also required a lot of soap, which caused the skin to lose excess oil. A lack of oil hurt water retention as well, resulting in the flesh becoming dry and damaged.

Compounding things further was this region’s warm climate. More makeup only made things worse on the skin.

“I truly respect the pursuit of beauty. But you’re trapped in a vicious cycle. In order to hide your damaged skin, you apply even thicker makeup, which leads to even more damaged skin. I am going to free people from this concern. That is where my product comes in… I call it moisturizer.”

At those words, Mira bent forward curiously. As someone who clearly cared deeply about her looks, she understood my appeal better than anyone. There was no way she wasn’t interested.

I produced a bottle full of moisturizer. Mira grabbed the jar, opened it, and scooped some out. Moisturizer was actually best used as a set with something called milky lotion, but I decided to sell only moisturizer.

In Japan, it was common practice to hydrate the face using both moisturizer and milky lotion. In America and Europe, most women used moisturizer by itself.

The culture of this land was closer to a Western society back in my first world. I was concerned that consumers would find applying both moisturizer and milky lotion annoying, so I decided to focus solely on moisturizer. By working to increase the water ratio and finding the most effective combination of ingredients, I’d attempted to suss out the most effective formula.

“It’s kind of like liquid, but it’s thick and adhesive. What is it?” Mira asked.

“It’s a cosmetic product that moistens dry skin and keeps it in healthy condition. Makeup exists to exaggerate your beauty, but this is different. This is for healing and protecting your skin as well as bringing out its natural beauty. You’ll understand once you try it. Please rub some on your face.”

While clearly still suspicious, Mira was unable to resist the temptation of something that could make her more beautiful, and she removed her scarf.

Her skin was badly cracked and damaged from many repeated days of applying and removing makeup in a hot climate. She picked up the bottle again and brought the moisturizer to her face. As she slowly spread it on herself, her eyes widened.

“I can’t believe this. I can feel this cream seeping into my skin and moisturizing it. I don’t think I’ve had skin this smooth in over a decade,” admitted Mira.

After seeing his wife’s face, Balor took a bottle and scooped out some moisturizer himself. “This feels like oil, but…it’s too soft.”

“You have a discerning eye. Soft oil is exactly what this is. Using plain oil would’ve been terrible for the skin, but oil with water and other medicinal ingredients mixed in helps to soften and repair the flesh.”

“This is incredible. I can already tell how happy my skin is. The moisturizer smells nice, too.” With skin as cracked and dry as Mira’s, of course it’d feel better after being moisturized. I also went out of my way to mix in ingredients that I knew she was fond of to bring about smells she’d enjoy.

“Moisturizer is like armor for the skin. Please try applying makeup over the moisturizer. With the oil’s protection, your skin will become more resistant to pain even when using the same makeup you’ve always used…”

Before I’d even finished my explanation, Mira was already going through her bag and pulling out a full set of cosmetics. She painted her skin white with foundation and gave her cheeks a red tint with blush.

“Wow, everything went on so easily,” said Mira.

“If you coat your face with moisturizer, you will cover up the unevenness in your skin, enabling other products to adhere more easily. So what do you think of my item?”

“I still despise you, but I have to acknowledge this is a great product. I’m going to take this bottle. And I want you to give me three, no, five more.”

Mira stuffed the bottle in her bag. No matter what I said, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to get it back.

“If my wife likes it, then I’m sure it’s the real deal. Give me the prospects for its success,” Balor said.

“This product will revolutionize cosmetics. All who wear makeup will come to need it. Both to heal and protect their skin.”

I took a short pause for impact.

“This should not be thought of as a competitor for existing cosmetics. From now on, using moisturizer is going to become common practice everyone who wears makeup… You understand the value of that, right, Father?”

This was the reason I chose moisturizer. It could revolutionize makeup itself. My goal had never been to steal customers from existing markets, but instead to create a new practice for anyone who wore makeup.

It was impossible for this to not turn a profit.

“I can’t say that I have a good understanding of makeup. Mira, do you think your friends would want this stuff?”

“I can’t imagine a woman alive who wouldn’t want it. I came here planning to mock and dismiss Illig, no matter what he made. After using this, however, I’m finding it difficult to do so. If it will get me more moisturizer, I’ll even address this bastard child as my own son,” admitted Mira.

“I see, it’s that good of a product…” Balor closed his eyes and deliberated. He let out a slow breath. “Then the Balor Company will invest all of its resources into this new product. Mira, distribute these to your friends and do your best to spread the word.”

“I have a lot of friends, you know.” Mira did not seem eager to share the wondrous lotion with others.

“Mira, as long as we have stock, please continue to use it and tell everyone you know about it. Give a bottle to each person. If they want more, refuse and tell them that the moisturizer will be on sale soon. Illig, how many can you prepare in a week?” asked Balor.

“Until we can finalize a production system, I’ll be making them by myself, so I can only create about two hundred in one week,” I said.

“I’ve given you permission to hire all the staff you need, remember?” Balor said.

“The problem is that risks the formula leaking. It’s likely other companies will attempt to make and sell moisturizer as soon as we launch this product,” I explained.

“… That’s not like me to get ahead of myself like that. You’re right. Until we can establish the brand, we need to make sure we have exclusivity over this product. I’ll assign two assistants to you whom I have full confidence can keep their lips sealed. Make as many as bottles as you can and send them all to me. Mira will then distribute them to the wives of noblemen and other such wealthy people. In this way, we can work to spread word of mouth among the upper class. Am I correct in assuming that’s why you had my wife come today, Illig?”

“Exactly. A product won’t sell on quality alone. Since the usefulness of moisturizer is so easily understood by using it, maximizing your wife’s connections is the best way to spread word of it. There’s no more effective form of advertising.”

I needed Mira’s help to show my target market the worth of my product. People were resistant to trying new products, especially when it came to items made to put on their skin. If trusted acquaintances used the product first, then they’d want to use it, too. The excitement that would build from hearing about such a useful item would undoubtedly snowball to create a large demand.

That was how business battles were won. It wasn’t nearly enough to create some quality goods and then expect them to magically sell. Oral accounts were especially essential when the target market was upper-class women.

“How long will it take you to put together the production system?” inquired Balor.

“About a month, and there’s a complication. A special drug is needed to make oil and water mix. It’s a secret remedy of House Tuatha Dé, and it must be acquired there. Taking that into account, it will cost this much to make one bottle of moisturizer.” I presented a document estimating the price of each of the ingredients that I needed.

“… The selling price of moisturizer is going to be cheap, but Tuatha Dé is quite far from here.” Balor searched my eyes as if to gauge my true intention.

“That’ll make it harder for the secret recipe to be discovered. I can’t make moisturizer without this particular chemical. It may be possible for me to call an apothecary from Tuatha Dé to have it made here, but that would increase the risk of a leak. As long as the drug is produced in Tuatha Dé, I can keep the recipe hidden,” I elaborated.

“I’ll allow it, then. I’ll leave the negotiation with House Tuatha Dé to you,” Balor said.

“Understood.”

This was my plan to ensure no one else could discover how moisturizer was produced.

The ingredient I used to mix oil and water was called lecithin, a naturally occurring substance found in soybeans.

To make lecithin, you first extracted oil from soybeans. You then filtered the oil to remove impurities and thoroughly mixed it with water until the paste-like lecithin separated from the oil.

Lecithin was used as a naturally occurring emulsifier, and it was capable of causing water and oil to mix. Without it, combining water and oil was impossible.

In the Tuatha Dé domain, I could have lecithin produced in an environment where the information was guaranteed not to leak. Without knowledge of that key ingredient, no other company would be able to replicate my formula.

More important than any of that, I was thinking of my long-term profits for House Tuatha Dé. Ensuring that the house had exclusive rights to production of a key portion of my moisturizer provided me with a good guarantee that the Balor Company couldn’t push me out of the business.

“Illig, I know I’m repeating myself, but we’re going to invest all of our resources into this product. If this succeeds, you’ll become the representative of the new Balor Company brand, and you’ll be famous worldwide. But if you fail, you know what will happen, right?” Balor asked.

“Of course. I will ensure this is a success. All right, I better get to work.”

My main product had been decided, and I’d secured the full support of the Balor Company.

At this point, it seemed impossible to fail. It was only a matter of time until Illig Balor became known around the world as the person who built the Balor Company cosmetic brand.

With a reputation like that, I’d have easy access to any of my targets. Nobles would be fighting each other to have me visit their manors.

What’s more, my success would grant me unlimited access to the Balor Company’s information and distribution networks, plus I’d rake in massive sums of money.

Success was close at hand, ready for me to reach out and grab it. I just needed to stay focused.

I’d joked earlier that I risked becoming the target of assassination attempts myself if I grew too successful; however, it seemed inevitable at this point. Other businesses would seek to eliminate me; my coworkers could get jealous of my achievements; someone might even take me hostage to try to force the moisturizer recipe out of me.

Let them come , I thought. It’ll make for great combat experience for Tarte and Maha.

Chapter 16 | The Assassin Achieves Success

A month and a half after the trial period, we went forward with our plans and opened the new cosmetics store.

I named the brand Natural You, and only half a year into its grand opening, it had become so popular, it was on its way to being a household name all around the world.

The store, selling moisturizer as its main product, quickly became a hit on a scale far larger than any of us could’ve imagined, largely thanks to the incredible publicity that’d started with Balor’s wife. I’d seriously underestimated how quickly word traveled among the women of wealthy families.

Large lines formed at the store every day, and moisturizer was continually selling out the moment we got new stock. Despite my best efforts to increase production, we still couldn’t meet the demand.

Every time I increased the manufacturing rate, word would spread, and the demand increased in kind.

Customers were not only coming from other cities, but other countries as well. The other day, Count Milteu received an official letter from a royal family in a foreign nation requesting moisturizer.

Underneath all this activity, however, a fierce information war had been unfolding.

Other companies were sending spies into the production factory or trying to bribe my employees, all for the purpose of discovering the production method for moisturizer. I’d raised security multiple times, but it’d quickly proved impossible to stop all of it.

Much of the recipe had been leaked, including the fact that it was made by adding herbs to a medicinal compound created by mixing olive oil and water. Some had even found out that there was a secret ingredient used to mix it all together.

Thankfully, the mixture of the herbs and the means of obtaining or producing the secret ingredient, lecithin, were still unknown. Thus, even with so much of the formula known to competitors, only the Balor Company still had the ability to make moisturizer.

Lecithin was still produced only in the Tuatha Dé domain, though Balor took care to conceal even that by faking its production in Milteu.

Even if word somehow got out that the lecithin was coming from Tuatha Dé, my father had taken extra care to ensure the production method would never be revealed, and the citizens of Tuatha Dé were already fairly tight-lipped. It wasn’t especially hard to imagine what would happen if you were caught trying to sneak onto an assassin’s property.

I was sure that everyone back home had their hands full.

The amount of lecithin required to keep up with the demand was far greater than anyone had expected. As a result, all of the soybeans in the Tuatha Dé domain had been used up almost immediately, but because ceasing production wasn’t an option, Tuatha Dé had begun quietly buying up soybeans from other regions.

“Other companies want to sell moisturizer, but they have no way of discovering the production method. It’s only logical to expect them to get impatient and target people who know the secret.”

This prediction of mine quickly proved correct.

Late one night, an intruder of decent skill sneaked into my house through the attic and made toward my room. “Decent skill” by my standards actually meant they were extremely talented, though this assailant still had no chance of catching me.

Dealing with them myself was sure to be easy, but I’d decided this was better practice for Tarte and Maha. I was content to just sit back and enjoy the show, though I did plan on stepping in to stop the fight if the girls were going to kill the intruder.

I heard someone stop directly above me. They bored a tiny hole in the ceiling. Most likely they were going to shoot me with a poison dart from a blowgun. Killing clearly wasn’t the goal, as my rival businesses needed my information. This assailant wanted to kidnap and interrogate me to get my secrets.

Hmm, how will Tarte and Maha handle this? It didn’t take long for me to get my answer.

Tarte entered the room and rolled up her skirt. A knife was strapped to her right thigh, a threefold metal rod on her left. She drew them both.

She connected the pieces of the rod together and attached the knife on the end to create a spear that she used to quickly jab at the ceiling.

Spears were the best weapon to use in close combat. When using a sword against one, it was said that you needed to be three times as skilled to win. Tarte was actually very skilled with polearms. So much so that I’d begun to suspect she had the Spear Arts skill.

I’d given her that concealable spear as a birthday present. Tarte immediately fell in love with it, declaring it a treasure, and she never slacked when it came to maintaining the weapon.

Tarte was capable of using both knives and spears depending on the situation and the distance between her and her opponent. She’d become skilled enough to be able to take down even the average knight in combat.

“You never stood a chance,” she gloated to the intruder.

The intruder had the presence of mind to avoid screaming, but the blood spreading across the ceiling made it abundantly clear that they’d failed to dodge in time.

Tarte’s strike had likely not been fatal on its own, but the scabbard for her knife had been laced with a neurotoxin. The poison was made from a Tuatha Dé secret recipe that I’d improved upon, and anyone who was so much as pricked by a blade coated in that substance would be rendered unable to lift a finger unless they had a very special physical makeup.

I chose this toxin because I wanted something that left my enemies alive but immobile. I couldn’t have rival assassins committing suicide before I got them to say who’d hired them.

Someone lifted up a board of the ceiling, and Maha peered down into my room.

“We’ve caught him… I gagged him and tied him up so he can’t kill himself,” she said.

After detecting the intruder, Tarte had immediately stood guard and then intercepted before he could attack me, while Maha provided backup and blocked the escape route. It was safe to say they’d passed the test.

“Well done. That’s no small feat detecting and dealing with an assassin of this caliber. I’m proud of you both,” I praised.

Such speed of perception and action was commendable. They weren’t perfect, of course, but it was clear they’d come a long way.

“Hee-hee-hee, I am so happy,” Tarte giggled.

“Yeah, that was exciting. I feel like we can do anything,” Maha added.

“You haven’t had practical torture experience yet, have you? This is a perfect opportunity to put your classroom learning to the test. It would be very useful if you could get him to admit who hired him. See if you can devise a way to pry information out of him without a suicide. I’ve already taught you the necessary techniques to accomplish this,” I commanded.

“I’ll do my best! He tried to do something horrible to Master Illig, so I won’t show any mercy,” Tarte replied.

“Yeah, I have some anger I’d like to take out on him, too… If we do well, make sure to praise us, dear brother,” Maha said.

The thing I was happiest about was that the two of them had grown capable of killing for me without hesitation.

Unlike me, they hadn’t been given prisoners to get used to killing, so I wasn’t sure they would be capable of it. Thankfully, it seemed their desire to make me happy had overridden any resistance they could’ve otherwise possessed.

Tarte and Maha had never looked more lovely to me than they did in that moment. I was certain they’d be great assets to me in battle.

While they diligently tortured the assassin, I cleaned the blood-spattered ceiling, then made some refreshments as a reward while I was at it.

It was going to be a long night.

Today was my day off.

Half a year had passed since I’d launched my Natural You cosmetics brand, but every day still felt like a war zone, and it didn’t seem likely to calm down any time soon.

Even in such a busy time, rest was still important. Without it, you’d eventually break down. That’s why I’d decided on taking a weekly one-day break from both my work as a merchant and from Tarte and Maha’s training.

I told them to go out and enjoy themselves while I took my monthly trip out of the city.

Despite the identity of Illig Balor already being a disguise, I’d now disguised myself as someone from the Viekone domain in the neighboring country of Soigel. Viekone was over four hundred kilometers away from Milteu.

While it normally took around three weeks to make the journey from Milteu to Viekone, I could manage going there and back in just a single day. By implementing shortcuts and methods of travel above land, I’d shortened the time the journey took with each outing.

“Okay, I wonder if I’ll break my record this time.” Lately, I’d been making a game of it by timing myself. It made for great practice.

Less than half a day later, I arrived in the Viekone domain, and I sneaked into the courtyard of the Viekone estate.

I threw three pebbles at Dia’s window. That was our signal. While risking being discovered as someone who’d illegally crossed the border and stolen into a foreign count’s estate was dangerous, dealing with the official methods of immigration was a huge pain. That’s why Dia and I had decided to meet this way.

She opened the window, and I used a wind spell to soar five meters above the ground. My eyes locked with Dia’s as I reached the apex of the leap.

“Long time no see, Dia,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s nice to see you. Come in, I’ve got some delicious tea,” she replied.

“Sounds good. I brought some candy from overseas.”

“Well then, this is going to be a fun tea party!”

Before gravity pulled me into a fall toward the ground, I grabbed on to the rim of the window and pulled myself into Dia’s room.

The room itself was not especially dainty. It was crowded with books about magic from all around the world, and staffs and other mana-boosting devices filled any other available space.

“I’m amazed every time I see this room,” I remarked.

“E-even I know it’s not very girlie, but I don’t have any room for cute things. I do have another room for that kind of stuff, you know,” Dia answered, flustered.

It was just like Dia to need another room because this one was too packed full of magical paraphernalia.

“It’s fine like this. It fits you.”

“I’m not sure how to take that comment, but I know better than to expect much from you in that department. Okay, here are all the spells I’ve written in the last month. I’m sure you’ll find them interesting,” said Dia, eyes sparkling, as she hoisted a stack of paper at me.

The pages were tightly packed with formulas written in the runic language of magic. In this world, only those with the Spell Weaver skill could truly give birth to new spells.

Anyone could write down a new formula, but if I didn’t also copy it down, the incantation would fail. It’d become tradition for me to copy all the spells Dia had written in the month between our regular visits.

I easily grasped the meaning of each of Dia’s spells as I wrote them down. This time they were especially complicated. Then something caught my eye, and I came to a full stop.

… No way.

“You were able to finish that spell?” I asked, incredulous.

“Heh-heh-heh, bet you didn’t expect that. Ah, looks like you already wrote it down. All right, watch this.” Dia began the chant. Her elemental conversion and incantation were as beautiful as ever. When she finished casting the spell, a nearby teacup began to float, bobbing gently up and down in the air.

It was a spell that manipulated gravity. Until now, the best we’d managed was doubling the gravity around something to increase its weight. This spell accomplished the opposite, causing a target to float. I’d tried to create this kind of magic myself previously, but I’d been unsuccessful.

I’d been after this kind of spell for a long time because it was a necessary component for the most devastating and powerful sort of magic I could think of.

Dia had come to my aid yet again. I certainly owed her a lot.

“Well, shoot. Looks like you beat me to it,” I said.

“Your way of thinking is too rigid. In order to finish this spell, I…” Dia explained her thought process. It was plain on her face that she was having a lot of fun, proudly sharing her discoveries. The girl never appeared cuter, or more captivating, than at times like those. We also happened to be sitting close together, and I could tell that she smelled nice.

“Lugh, are you listening?” Dia suddenly asked.

“Yeah, I am. That’s an amazing idea. I hadn’t even considered that,” I replied.

“Hmm-hmm, does it make you respect your big sister a little more?”

Ever since the days when Dia had first served as my magic mentor, she’d enjoyed calling herself my big sister. I would’ve preferred we had a romantic relationship, but it was cute, so I allowed it.

“Yeah, I’m really impressed. I’d expect no less from you. How about some candy as a reward?”

“You said this is from overseas, right? …It’s so dark. It doesn’t look very good.”

“I guarantee you’ll like it.”

“Hmm. Ah, it’s bittersweet—and really good. I like it. It goes well with tea, and it would probably taste amazing as an ingredient when baking things like cake.”

“This candy is made from the seeds of cacao trees, which grow in countries to the south. Once my Natural You cosmetic brand slows down, I’m planning to start a confectionery line, and this is going to be the featured product,” I explained.

The candy was chocolate—the ultimate sweet of my previous world. Just like with moisturizer, it was definitely going to make me a huge profit.

Selling chocolate as a limited wintertime product was an idea I’d been entertaining for a while. It’d probably fly off the shelves because of its long shelf life and perfect suitability as a gift.

“Wow, that sounds nice. If I lived closer to Milteu, I’d buy some,” said Dia.

“Yeah, this is a little too far. I’ll bring some more next month.”

“I can’t wait!”

If it was for Dia, I’d bring an entire sack of chocolate the next time I saw her.

We moved on to showing each other the results of our research since we last met. This was the thing I enjoyed doing with Dia more than anything, even if there was nothing amorous about it. Dia looked her best when she was talking about magic.

We quickly lost track of time, and the sun had started its descent into the horizon, which meant it was time for me to leave.

Admittedly, I was extremely reluctant to depart, but I had work tomorrow. Staying wasn’t an option.

“… It’s time to say good-bye already, isn’t it? Whenever you have to go, I always think about how great it would be if you lived here,” Dia said, clearly a little gloomy.

“I’d like that. What if I became your butler?” I offered.

“If you say stuff like that, I may actually try to make it happen, you know.”

“Actually, becoming your butler would definitely be problematic for me… All right, time for me to go. See you next month.”

“Yeah, see you!”

I jumped from the window, using wind magic to soften my descent. Dia leaned from the window and waved down at me. Our brief monthly visit was already over.

Though entirely too short, it had been a fantastic break nonetheless. I felt refreshed and ready to get back to work.

Two years had passed now since I’d first come to Milteu, and I was reflecting on the time I’d spent in the port city.

I was absurdly busy with all my work at the store, but through that, I’d been able to learn much about the world.

As the young prodigy who’d launched the successful Balor Company subsidiary, Natural You, I’d been invited to a wide variety of places and made a lot of personal connections. It also went without saying that I’d become incredibly rich.

As promised, I’d been receiving 5 percent commission on all sales from the Balor Company’s cosmetic stores, and I was also still the manager of the flagship store, which held the highest sales out of any establishment in the chain.

I received all of my stores’ profit after subtracting the Balor Company’s cut and employee salaries. The business had done so well that I already had enough money to never work again for the rest of my life. For that reason, I’d taken to investing in a few things that’d piqued my interest.

The day to return home to Tuatha Dé had finally come.

The handing over of my responsibilities had mostly already been taken care of, and I’d said my good-byes to most everyone at the Balor Company.

A horse-drawn carriage was parked in front of the estate, and Tarte and I climbed in.

“Maha, I leave Natural You and the management of my information network in your hands,” I said.

“I won’t let you down, Lugh. I’ll protect your base here in Milteu,” she replied.

All three of us were fourteen years old now, and we looked quite a bit different than we did two years ago. Tarte had become very cute, and Maha was growing into a beautiful young lady. In the Alvanian Kingdom, fourteen was the age where you were recognized as an adult.

Though I’d tried my best with her training over the last two years, Maha had proved unsuitable for my assassination task force, as I’d expected. She’d grown to the point where I could confidently rely on her to manage logistical support, however.

I named her my administrative assistant in conjunction with the opening of a new store. She’d been working as Illig Balor’s right-hand woman—and was becoming a very skilled merchant in her own right. While I was gone from Milteu, she was to assume all my responsibilities.

I also told her my real name and background. That’s why she called me Lugh and not Illig on the day I left to return home.

While acting as the proxy representative of Natural You, she was going to carry out all the information gathering, capital provision, and resource procurement that I needed for my assassination work.

“I’m sorry I’m the only one who gets to go with Lord Lugh, Maha,” Tarte apologized.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous, but I’m proud that I can help Lugh in ways that no one else can… Tarte, please take care of him for me,” Maha said back.

“I will!” responded Tarte. She and Maha exchanged a few encouraging words.

Maha then turned to me, tears forming in her eyes. Evidently, the separation wasn’t going to be easy on her.

“Even if you can’t stay for very long, please come visit me sometimes, Lugh,” she pleaded.

“I promise I’ll visit you, even when I don’t have a business reason to come to Milteu.”

“You’d better not forget that. If you go all the way to the Viekone estate every single month to visit Lady Dia and then never come to see me…it’ll make me very sad, and I’ll probably cry.”

“Maha, you’re an important apprentice and assistant to me. There’s no way I wouldn’t visit you,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll be waiting… Also, I found that thing you asked for—an uninhabited island located away from any merchant ship routes. Here’s a map. What do you need this for anyway?”

“Two days ago, when I met with Dia, we finished some new magic. It’s too powerful and dangerous to test anywhere other than an uninhabited island,” I said.

This new deadly magic had been developed specifically for the purpose of killing the hero, and it held unfathomable power. The basic principles were complete, but it still needed a proper test run. Unfortunately, because of the spell’s power and enormous area of effect, I couldn’t risk testing it anywhere other than a place completely devoid of people.

The carriage departed, and eventually Maha fell out of sight.

I had at last completed my father’s final trial. I’d successfully become a top-class merchant with wide-reaching fame.

There was no wife or daughter of any noble house that would not welcome Illig Balor with open arms.

Once I returned to the Tuatha Dé domain, I was going to start receiving real assassination jobs. I still had yet to kill anyone outside that underground prison. I wondered what sort of things this new me would feel when I killed.

The carriage clattered along the road.

I could tell from her face that Tarte was starting to feel a little homesick.

“Tarte, are you going to miss Maha?” I asked.

“… Honestly, yes. She’s the first friend my age I’ve ever had.”

I’d wanted to take Maha along, too, if possible, but I needed a representative in Milteu to manage my Balor Company information network.

Having a second location I could fall back on if House Tuatha Dé ever came under serious threat was a boon, too. In a worst-case scenario, I could fake Lugh’s death and live the rest of my life as Illig.

“Really? Well, how about I leave the delivery of lecithin to you as often as I can. You’ll have plenty of chances to see her,” I offered.

Tarte had grown a lot over the last two years. She’d become extremely skilled with mana, and she was proficient with her wind affinity.

Her repertoire was comprised mostly of spells I’d created, and she was showing herself to be more than capable as an assassin’s assistant. I don’t think I could’ve had a more dependable guard or transport.

“That would make me happy. But I think Maha would rather see you,” Tarte answered.

“You think so?”

“Yes. Maha loves you, my lord, and not as family or a friend. She loves you in, um, that way.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think you’re right. Maha admires me. That’s similar, but not the same thing.”

“Sometimes the things you say are too difficult for me to understand, my lord.”

“You’ll understand someday.”

Just then, the carriage came to a sudden stop. We’d been surrounded by wolves.

The driver jumped from the carriage and ran, abandoning his passengers. He was promptly set upon and became wolf food.

These creatures were far larger than normal wolves. Their claws seemed unusually large, and I could sense a small amount of mana emanating from their bodies.

These were monsters. Monsters were defined as animals that possessed mana. Just like with humans, animals also became stronger when enveloped in mana. Often, it resulted in mutations.

Typically, such animals were known to stay far from human civilization. It was strange to see them so readily approach people.

“This is perfect. May I use this as an opportunity to show off the fruits of my training?” asked Tarte.

“Ah, sounds good. I’ll watch from here,” I responded. Tarte then enveloped herself in mana to increase her physical strength, and she jumped out of the carriage.

All told, there were three wolves, and they quickly utilized the advantage of their numbers, encircling Tarte.

One of them bared its fangs and pounced. Before the wolf could bite into Tarte’s flesh, a blade pierced through its mouth. Tarte was holding her spear. She’d lifted her skirt, removed the pieces of her weapon, and assembled it all in the blink of an eye.

The next wolf attacked from behind, but Tarte gave it a blow to the jaw and sent the creature flying through the air using the Wind Bullet spell.

The majority of sorcerers could cast magic only from the palms of their hands. Such was the way the formulas bestowed by the gods were written.

However, by modifying equations, Dia and I had made it so that you could cast magic from any point within a few dozen centimeters of your body.

Tarte could cast magic about forty centimeters out from herself. As soon as her opponents entered her range, she could knock them out instantly with a quick Wind Bullet to the jaw. Even the very best swordsmen would be caught unawares by such an attack because most everyone else was still under the impression that mages could cast magic only from their hands.

It was admittedly simple, but it made for a nice surprise attack.

The last wolf ran away too quickly for Tarte to be able to catch it on foot, but before the wolf could get very far, Tarte’s spear pierced its back. She’d thrown the spear using the power of wind, giving it the speed of a bullet.

“That was impressive,” I commented.

“It’s all thanks to your training. I’ve become very capable in battle, my lord.”

While Maha was working as my administrative assistant and sharpening her skills needed to handle my logistical support, Tarte was accumulating combat experience.

She looked proud of herself as she returned to the carriage, and she smiled contently when I patted her on the head.

“… Looks like it’s about time for the hero to start showing up,” I muttered.

I’d been allowed to reincarnate specifically for the purpose of killing the hero. After the hero overthrew the Demon King, he was supposed to go mad with power and bring ruin upon the world.

It had been long said that once monsters began to increase in number, demons would soon appear, followed by the Demon King and the hero, in turn.

Monsters appearing on a main road like this was likely a sign that demons were coming.

I needed to hurry. Thankfully, I’d been doing more these last two years than just simply working as a merchant. Lots of my time had been spent training Tarte, my combat partner. I’d also raised Maha to function in a non-battle support role from her place in Milteu.

I’d even had a major breakthrough in my efforts to create the ultimate weapon designed to kill the hero.

I was eager to experiment; my tests on the uninhabited island couldn’t come soon enough. I was certain that not even the hero could withstand something that powerful.

Interlude | The Goddess’s Guidance and a Fated Encounter

In an alabaster room, a goddess wreathed in white sat down with a blank expression.

She looked like a doll, appearing inhuman and emotionless. Her persona didn’t at all resemble the energetic and playful attitude she’d assumed when meeting with that other world’s greatest assassin. That’d been nothing more than a personality simulation deemed most likely to put the assassin at ease.

The goddess was nothing more than a tool designed to watch over and protect worlds.

You could see her as a cold, cruel realist, but those words didn’t accurately get at the heart of what the goddess really was. In truth, she was but a simple mechanism. Possessed of no emotion, she only pretended to have such feelings when the circumstances demanded it.

“An intervention in fate. Aid to Lugh Tuatha Dé successful,” whispered the goddess in a dispassionate voice.

The assassin currently named Lugh Tuatha Dé had a very difficult mission.

His current odds of success were only 8 percent at best. That’s why she was giving him extra support.

Even with the goddess’s level of authority, however, there was a limit to how much she could intervene. If she had the ability, she would’ve directly removed the hero herself.

She didn’t have the ability to increase her number of pieces, nor could she alter them in any way. Instead, she was focusing all her efforts on guiding her existing pieces down the right path.

If you wanted to put it in romantic terms, you could say she was setting up fated encounters.

Whether Lugh noticed these encounters or was able to take advantage of them was up to him.

“Depletion of Lugh Tuatha Dé’s assigned support confirmed. Demanding additional resources… Dismissal of request by superior being confirmed. Grant of additional resources is dependent on the achievements of Lugh Tuatha Dé. Leaving this matter for now. Beginning phase two.”

The goddess had hopes for Lugh Tuatha Dé, but she couldn’t trust him.

He was nothing more than the piece that currently had the highest odds of saving the world.

Knowing this, the goddess was already moving on to the next piece. As long as the world was saved, it didn’t matter which piece got the job done.

The goddess, robotic and emotionless as ever, continued to observe the world.

Illig was sleeping in this morning.

… Apparently, his real name was Lugh.

Certain circumstances had led to him pretending to be a person named Illig.

I loved watching him sleep.

While awake, he was handsome, kind, always on guard, and a perfect person in every way, but while sleeping, he just looked like a sweet, innocent young boy.

I asked if I could sleep in his bed because I was lonely, but that was just an excuse.

I just wanted to be with him so I could see his cute, sleeping face up close.

“Dear brother, would you wake if I kissed you?”

I really wanted to try, but I didn’t have the courage.

Illig was like a father, a brother, and a teacher to me. He’d given me so much affection, and I could never thank him enough for that.

I wished he would see Tarte and me as members of the opposite sex, though…

The reason he wouldn’t was because he already had his heart set on someone else.

It was frustrating.

If I’d met him sooner, perhaps I could’ve been the apple of his eye instead.

I wasn’t going to give up, though. I still had time. The human heart is fickle.

Right now, the girl named Dia was the object of his desire, but that was only for the moment. Who could say what would happen in the future?

“Maybe I should get a little sleep, too.”

Watching Illig’s cute sleeping face made me sleepy.

It was cold outside, just like it’d been on the day I first met Illig.

~Lugh and Maha’s Encounter~

Everything was stolen from me.

“In order to trust someone, you must first doubt them.”

Whenever I was having a hard time, I recalled my father’s favorite phrase.

He was an excellent merchant. Leaving his small hometown to find work, he ended up founding a company that grew very successful in only a single generation.

Father’s belief was that “in order to trust someone, you must first doubt them.”

It was impossible to unconditionally trust another person. First, it was best to be wary of them. Only decide to trust them once they’d done enough to earn it.

Blindly trusting others wasn’t a virtue—it was simple carelessness.

I think those words are the reason I’m alive today.

… Through a plot orchestrated by Father’s right-hand man, my parents were both killed.

They’d been on the way to an important business meeting when their carriage was assaulted by a large group of thieves.

The thieves knew ahead of time when the carriage was coming, and they waited for it in full armor. The escort Father hired had also turned out to be entirely made up of disguised thieves.

There was no way that was a coincidence. It was a plot by Father’s right-hand man to take over the company.

After the funeral, that man approached me and started crying over my father’s demise. He hugged me, saying that he would protect me and the company.

I’d just lost my parents, and he was a friend of Father’s and an acquaintance of mine, so I put my head to his chest and cried.

I doubted his intentions nonetheless. If I’d really believed his words, I probably would’ve been killed, too.

In the midst of my despair, I still managed to recall my father’s most important lesson.

I didn’t have a family. The only person I had to rely on was this man, Father’s friend and former adjutant.

I resisted the temptation to entrust myself to him and did some investigating. Through that, I discovered that he was the one who killed my parents, and in order to take the company, he was going to kill me next.

So I ran.

I barely got away. He’d assigned a guard to watch me, one who didn’t hesitate to try to kill me once he saw I was running. If I didn’t have mana, I doubt I would have been able to escape.

Father had always told me to hide my mana.

Being a mage came with a variety of perks, but in exchange, you ended up saddled with a lot of responsibility. If I was to inherit the company someday, it was far better for me to hide my mana. Concealing it had been the thing that saved my life.

I escaped the guard, took all the money I could hold, disguised myself as a simple town girl, and headed for the large city of Milteu, where I hoped I wouldn’t be found.

A bit of fortune found me as I purchased goods from a traveling merchant for higher than market price, and I was given a ride in his carriage in exchange.

“I’ll be back someday,” I said while hiding among the merchant’s goods as the carriage left town.

I wanted to protect Father’s company, but it was due to the education my parents had given me that I knew I had to leave.

My safety could never have been guaranteed in that town. No matter what I did, I surely would’ve been killed.

If I wanted to protect my father’s company, I had no choice but to run to prolong my life, and return once I’d become stronger.

That’s why I left.

Gathering my resolve, I swore to myself that I’d focus on becoming stronger in Milteu, then return to my hometown someday to take back Father’s company.

Life in Milteu was rough.

Even though I had knowledge as a merchant, no one would hire a child without any relatives.

One night a burglar broke into the cheap inn I was staying at and stole all of my possessions aside from my wallet, which I’d made sure never to let go of.

That unfortunate event ended up lighting a fire under me, inspiring me to start a new business using the street children who lived in the slums.

I gathered orphans, picking the smart ones who could read and write, and used the money I had on hand to get them some nice clothes. Then I had them act as tour guides.

I sent the kids in the best physical shape into the mountains to collect snow and ice from the caves in summer, and firewood in the winter.

Milteu was a large city and saw a lot of tourists. As such, there ended up being a demand for the exhaustive knowledge of the city that street children could provide.

One thing I was surprised to discover was how knowledgeable the kids were about good restaurants in the city, thanks to all the garbage they regularly rooted through while looking for their next meal.

The snow and ice we sold in the summer ended up being popular products, and there was high demand for the firewood in the winter. I sold our products below market price to target the poorer population of Milteu, which led to some impressive sales.

I was able to run a reasonably successful business employing kids I found on the streets.

If you had the ability to read demand and put your employees in the right place to succeed, then you could run a business. Father’s teachings ended up saving me.

When everyone reaches adulthood, I’ll start a small company… That was the naive dream I’d started clinging to.

Unfortunately, things soon went bad for my business, thanks to philanthropic efforts seeking to give aid to orphans.

After receiving some sudden inspiration, Count Milteu’s wife took an interest in welfare and started to invest large sums of surplus tax revenue into relief for the poor.

Orphanages started to pop up all over town, each one after the large subsidies being offered. Thus, orphan hunting began. My street children were the first to be targeted, and we were all sent to orphanages. That marked the end of my business.

Just like that, my naive dream was over.

Life at the orphanage was miserable, and that was putting it mildly.

It was so awful that my time spent with the other kids on the street seemed like heaven in comparison.

As the orphanage was opened for the sole purpose of reaping the benefits, the director, unsurprisingly, thought of nothing other than reducing maintenance costs. All he needed to do was keep the children alive to ensure they could keep lining their pockets.

We were given the cheapest food imaginable, all of which tasted horrible.

Children were regularly beat to silence them when they were loud, and the abuse only got worse from there. It was an everyday occurrence to see children bound and gagged with rags stuffed into their mouths.

There was only one other adult working at my orphanage, probably to keep labor costs low.

His sole job was to keep watch. He wasn’t tasked with educating or taking care of the children in any way. The kids had to do all of the chores and look after the smaller children themselves. We were even forced to take on various odd jobs, and any who dragged their feet at work were hit. Any money we earned went straight into the pockets of the orphanage.

Once the good-looking children were deemed mature enough, they were forced to start taking customers.

A girl one year older than me named Noine returned to the orphanage one day and, likely because she’d been so traumatized by a client, took a knife and slashed her face repeatedly so that no customer would ever approach her again.

She’d been such a beautiful girl, but after that, she was unrecognizable.

Some children tried to escape, but that wasn’t tolerated.

If the number of children in the orphanage dropped, so would the subsidies. Such a thing would incur the wrath of the director.

A failed escape attempt meant a kid would be mutilated both to ensure they would never be able to run again and to serve as an example to the others.

Nothing had ever made me hate my own powerlessness more.

Violence and fear ruled that place. My intelligence, and everything Father had taught me as a merchant, was worthless there.

While doing laundry in the garden one day, I overheard the director and the guard speaking.

“Do you think Maha will be able to take customers soon? Lately I’ve been getting the urge to pin her down and take her myself.”

“That’s a great idea, boss. She’s a real looker, and a virgin, too. She’s sure to fetch a good price. I’m reaching out to the perverts in the nobility who like them young.”

“Hmm, don’t give her away for cheap. Virgins can sell pretty high. Her price will drop if she’s too scrawny, though, so make sure to feed her a well-balanced diet.”

“Don’t worry—I’ve been doing just that. She’s already starting to put on a little meat.”

“Once she sells, I might have a go at her. Sounds like she’s growing into a fine young girl.”

Feeling like I might scream, I covered my mouth with my hand and sat down on the ground.

They were going to make me take clients. Just thinking about it was making me sick, and I couldn’t help but picture Noine, her face slashed beyond recognition.

I can’t end up like that. I won’t end up like that , I thought, but I knew I didn’t want to take clients, either.

Unless I escaped, I’d be forced to suffer something terrible. There are no words to describe how scared I was.

No one at the orphanage knew I had mana. Regardless of how big and scary the adults were, if I could take them by surprise, I was sure I could get away.

I made a plan, devoting all of my time to preparation. I had to escape before they made me do the unspeakable.

Careful not to give away that I knew anything, I did my best to act as I usually did. There was no telling what they’d do to me if my scheme was discovered.

The night of my breakout had arrived.

A frenzy suddenly fell upon the orphanage.

Apparently, the son of the head of the Balor Company, who also happened to be one of the company’s executives, was coming to the orphanage and looking to adopt.

Other children were excitedly talking about how if he found someone he liked, he’d adopt them and have them work at the Balor Company. Not only would the child who got adopted be able to escape this nightmare, but they’d also be set up with a job at the biggest company in the city.

This was the chance of a lifetime, the rope dangling down to the bottom of a pit. Everyone was abuzz, discussing ways to appeal to the visitor.

If I was chosen, I could get out without taking any risks. Working at a big company was also very appealing. Saving up money would put me toward the goal of getting my father’s company back, plus it would afford me some invaluable experience.

Was it really all right for me to be chosen, though?

I had mana, a power that gave me a chance of escape. I’d already been working on a plan to run away. The other children didn’t have that option. Without mana, they had no hope of getting out of here.

I let out a long sigh, looked at the ceiling, and decided that I would do my best not to catch the Balor Company man’s eye. It was better to leave that opportunity to one of the other kids.

For a moment, I wondered if I’d become too soft. I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for all the other children stuck in this wretched place with me.

Later on, the rumored executive of the Balor Company arrived at the orphanage.

Everyone was surprised to discover that the executive turned out to be a young boy the same age I was.

I was struck by how handsome he was. He wasn’t just good-looking—he also had a certain elegance about him, and he radiated confidence.

“He’s my prince,” I muttered without thinking. I understood that he was special and that he was cut from a different cloth than I was.

Other kids quickly got over the shock of his age and hastily swarmed him, each one begging to be chosen.

“My name is Illig Balor. I’m looking for someone who could be my future assistant. Please tell me about yourselves.”

The prospect of working so closely with a major player at the biggest company in the city only made the children more excited.

I watched the scene play out a few steps behind the other kids, while the greedy director fawned over the boy. He was probably offering a lot of money for the adoption. The director acted like that only toward people who were going to fill his pockets.

The boy closely examined the children one by one, asking each of them questions. He was well-mannered and had a wonderful smile. All the girls were looking at him as though he were a prince who’d come to whisk them away.

I was tempted to go to him, but I just stayed back and watched.

Then, after a little time passed, the prince pushed his way through the crowd of children and walked straight up to me. Looking me up and down with those unusual eyes of his, he smiled at me. My heart pounded in my chest.

“I found you. I have need of your strength. Will you come with me?”

He extended a hand…and I grabbed it.

Even though I’d said to myself that I wouldn’t steal this chance from the other kids, I’d been unable to resist. I’d taken his hand almost unconsciously.

“Yes, I’d love to.”

I don’t think I’d intended to say yes, but the prince was so much larger than life, so handsome, that he’d stolen my heart before I knew what’d happened.

… I’m sorry , I apologized silently to the other kids.

I needed to do more than that, though. I resolved to one day return to that orphanage and save all of those poor children. With the support of an executive from the Balor Company, that should’ve been possible.

“Director Torran, I want to adopt this girl.”

“An excellent choice. Unfortunately, this girl is a bit of a special case, so I’ll have to double the price we discussed earlier… Actually, no, I’m going to need even more than that.”

“How much are you asking for?”

The director then proceeded to give an outrageously high price. He was probably just trying to start negotiations with a high price, expecting a counter.

That kind of money could buy you multiple slaves.

“Very well. Here you are.”

The prince coolly motioned for his attendant to take out some gold coins and stuffed them into a leather bag. Eyes wide in shock, the director eagerly accepted the money while bowing profusely.

“I-it’s a deal. However, I’m afraid we can’t hand her over just yet. We need to give Maha some time to prepare, so please come back in three days.”

“Understood. See you in three days.”

It wasn’t time to prepare. The director wanted to sell me to some noble for a night to make a little more money while he still could. He likely wanted to have his turn at me himself.

I nearly called out to the prince to save me, but I ended up swallowing the words. The director was glaring daggers at me with bloodshot eyes, warning me not to say anything out of line. Fear gripped me, and I stayed quiet.

The prince looked at me and smiled. It felt like he was telling me that everything would be okay.

“Director Torran, I will come to adopt her in three days, but our contract is complete, and I am now her guardian. Make sure not to forget that.”

“Of course, my good sir. I’ll treat her with the utmost care.”

It was a lie, of course. Once again, the director was warning me not to say anything. Even without him threatening me, I don’t think I could’ve said anything. I didn’t want the prince to think of me as defiled.

My hunch about why I was detained for three days was quickly proved right.

The very night I’d been adopted, a customer was lined up for me. The director had probably rushed to find a customer because the prince was coming to collect me in a few days.

Unfortunately, my customer was a nobleman, which reduced my chances of escape.

After being washed and dressed up in the nicest clothes I’ve worn since I ran away from home, I was loaded into a horse-drawn carriage.

The guard and the director sat next to me. Unless I did something, I was going to be raped.

My customer was the same person who’d treated poor Noine so horribly that she’d mutilated her own face afterward.

All of the kids who’d been forced to take clients always said that nobles were the roughest.

I’m scared, I’m scared, I’m scared.

All I had to do was endure this for three days, and then I could be with the prince. The image of his face came to mind. I couldn’t stand the thought of being violated before I went to him.

It really wasn’t like me to have such thoughts; they made me feel like a young maiden out of a fairy tale. I’d been focused on survival for so long that I’d forgotten those kinds of emotions. While I began to wonder what had changed in me, I quickly realized the answer.

It was love at first sight.

Honestly, I was surprised at myself for still being capable of such a feeling. It certainly explained the strange thoughts I was having.

I thought that if I managed to jump out the carriage window, ran to the first Balor Company store I could find, and then called his name, the people there would surely help me.

I had two choices. The first was to do as I was told and go to the prince in three days. The second was to risk danger and go to my prince still a maiden.

To me, the decision was easy.

“It’s a shame,” the director said with a sigh. “If that boy had only come a month later, I could’ve had my fill of this girl.”

“…!”

The director reached over and rubbed my leg with his greasy fingers. I pretended to be scared so I wouldn’t tip them off. Meanwhile, I measured the best time to escape.

The carriage turned on the road and swayed, causing both the director and the guard to lose their balance and tip to one side.

It was the best chance I was ever going to get. I opened the window and leaped out.

As I landed, I rolled along the ground to soften the impact. My dress was ruined in the process, but I didn’t care. I even ripped the skirt to make it easier to run.

During my time working with other street urchins, I’d gained plenty of physical training, and I’d learned the back alleys of Milteu very well.

There was no reason to hide my mana now, so I ran with all my power. Sadly, it wasn’t long before I was caught.

“How…?” I gasped.

I’d run into an alley but was able to make only two turns before the guard from the orphanage had caught up to me. No normal person should’ve been able to do that.

“You weren’t the only one hiding your mana, little girl. Awww, I’ll have to punish you for ruining your dress like that. Hyuk-hyuk-hyuk, not even the director will see us here. As long as I don’t leave a mark, I can do whatever I like. I’m always getting stuck with the director’s leftovers, so it’ll be nice to break one in myself for a change.”

This was terrible. Trying to escape into an alley had backfired.

The guard swung his arm at me as hard as he could, and I closed my eyes to brace myself for the impact. To my surprise, the strike never came.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw that someone had caught the guard’s arm.

“Y-you little bastard…”

“I believe I made myself quite clear. ‘Our contract is complete, and I am now her guardian. Make sure not to forget that.’ Maha is my little sister. What exactly were you about to do to her?”

My prince was there, standing right before my eyes. The guard cowered at the boy’s glare alone and backed away.

“How did you…?” I managed to say.

“When I left, I could see your eyes begging me to save you, so I did a little research on Torran. It didn’t take long for me to realize his intentions, so I kept an eye on you.”

I was suddenly overcome with emotion, and my heart began to beat dramatically.

“But that was dangerous,” I said.

“It may have been, but you’re part of my family now. Family members protect each other.” The prince let go of the guard’s arm and stood in position to protect me. “Let’s get out of here.” He draped a coat over me and smiled.

Suddenly aware of my state of dress, I looked away shyly.

The guard was standing there paralyzed. He seemed unsure if it was okay for him to hit an executive of the Balor Company. Then the director appeared in the alleyway, and I stifled a gasp.

“Well, this is problematic. Your adoption of Maha was supposed to be three days from now,” he said.

“I don’t like being made to repeat myself. This girl is a part of my family. I won’t overlook her being endangered,” the prince replied.

“… Then you leave me no choice. I already have your money, so I don’t need to kiss your ass anymore. I’ll put you in your place, you little shit!”

“Y-you sure about this, boss? Illig Balor is the son of the head of the Balor Company. This’ll make us enemies of theirs.”

“You think I care? I’ll just make him disappear. I’ll sell him off in some foreign country as a male prostitute!”

The guard sneered at the villainous proposal. Clearly, he was glad for any justification to beat on the prince.

“Please run. That guy is a mage!” I pleaded.

“Yes, I know.” The prince seemed surprisingly calm despite my warning.

He easily dodged the guard’s punch and lightly brought his arms down on the guard’s shoulders.

With a dull sound, the guard’s shoulder joints separated, and the prince rammed into him while he was off-balance. He then stepped on the guard’s knee, causing it to bend in a direction no knee rightly should have.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” the guard screamed, writhing in pain.

The prince turned to the director and smiled. He closed the distance between them in an instant and pressed a knife against his throat. A line of blood trickled down the director’s throat where the knife pricked him.

The director couldn’t even manage a response.

“E-eek…”

“I never had any need to make a deal with you, you know. I could just as easily take her by force… To be honest, force is where I excel.” The prince was smiling the whole time, but I could feel some kind of cold, dark aura emanating from him. It sent a chill down my spine.

The director, facing such a fearsome sensation head-on, wet his pants and was unable to move or respond.

“All right, Maha, let’s go home. I already have a room prepared for you.” The prince reached out his hand to me again, just like he had at the orphanage.

One thing I was certain of now was that this boy was not normal. If I took his hand, I’d cease being normal, too.

“Take me away, my prince.”

But I didn’t look back.

No matter how unusual he was, I fully believed I’d be happy anywhere as long as I was with him.

First, I had to doubt him, though. I would have to investigate who and what this boy was. Only then would I decide if he really was worthy of trust.

He may have been my prince and the savior I’d so longed for, but I still needed to be sure. That’s what my father had taught me, and that ideal is what had kept me alive through all my troubles.

~The Night Before Lugh’s Departure~

Illig, whose true identity was Lugh Tuatha Dé, was to return to his real home tomorrow.

In preparation of his departure, we were going through final checks to transfer control of his cosmetic brand, Natural You, to me.

“And we’re done,” I said.

“Great. I leave it in your hands,” Illig replied.

“I won’t let you down. I’m confident I have the skill to protect your brand, but I won’t stop there. I’ll grow the brand even larger,” I declared.

“With you in charge, that wouldn’t surprise me,” Illig said with a gentle smile.

“I’m also thinking of expanding beyond this city. There is a very promising store in a nearby town. It’s the property of a company that used to be very successful but has fallen into decline since a change in management.”

That “promising store” was one of the establishments in Father’s old company.

Ever since Father’s right-hand man took over, the company had suffered failure after failure and quickly fell into financial trouble. It was one of the smaller stores, and it had been put up for sale after being judged as not particularly important.

However, it was the first store my father had built. As such, it held many memories for me. I was going to take back Father’s company. Taking that first shop was the first step toward that goal.

“Do as you like. I trust in your skill. I won’t tell you to keep personal feelings out of this, but if you do decide to follow your heart, make sure you succeed,” Illig instructed.

“Of course. I am your assistant, after all.”

Illig probably knew everything about my past and how I was trying to take back my father’s business. We hadn’t openly spoken about it, but I was certain he’d done thorough investigations on my origin.

Even with such knowledge, he still trusted me.

For that reason, I was determined to see my personal goal realized while also making a profit.

“If you do decide to follow your heart, make sure you succeed.” Hearing Illig say that only made me love him more.

Choosing to follow this abnormal boy down this strange road was definitely the right choice.

“Master Illig, Master Maha, I brought some tea.”

“Thank you.”

The kid who brought us tea had previously lived with me in the same orphanage and had even been one of my business partners back when I’d lived on the streets. Recently, I’d been rescuing different children from the orphanage by hiring them into the Balor Company.

“About that thing you asked me for. If I can get it, will you go on a date with me?”

“Only if you don’t try anything afterward.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Illig and I laughed.

My lifelong dreams were at last within my grasp, and it was all thanks to my dear brother. That’s why I’d decided that no matter what the future held for me, I’d dedicate the rest of my life to helping Illig, even if that meant dying for him.

I hoped that perhaps one day, once I’d achieved my objective, Illig would see me not as his assistant but as a lover.

For that purpose, I resolved myself to work hard to meet his expectations.

Chapter 17 | The Assassin Returns Home

After a long time away, I’d finally returned to the Tuatha Dé domain as Lugh.

“It’s changed so much in the last two years.”

The most obvious change from two years ago were the vast soybean fields.

The little legumes could be grown in thin soil without much time and effort. They even helped replenish the nutrients in the dirt as they grew. However, because most people only regarded soybeans as food for livestock, there wasn’t much demand for them. This was why so few people grew them.

Once House Tuatha Dé began buying up the crop as an ingredient for moisturizer, the price of soybeans inflated to the same price as wheat. Now that they’d become an easy source of money, there were soybean fields all over the domain.

Tarte leaned out of the carriage and looked around outside. “We’ve finally returned. It’s so nostalgic. But I feel like the city life in Milteu fits you better, my lord.”

“Did it really seem that way? I feel like this a better fit for me. I’m more at ease here.”

My dyed hair had at last been allowed to return to its natural silver color. As the carriage trundled toward the estate, citizens of the domain began to approach and wave.

“Welcome back! You sure aren’t called a wonder boy for nothing. Soybeans sell for an amazing price now, and my job turning the soybeans into that weird paste pays super well.”

“Thanks to our boy genius, I was able to buy two cows.”

“Even when you’re not here, you continue to work for our sake!”

“I’m grateful for all you’ve done, but sure enough there were many times when I’d wished you were here.”

It seemed that Father had explained to them that I was the one responsible for the increase in the selling price of soybeans. Everyone was telling me how much easier it had made their lives.

Once again, I was glad that I’d decided to export lecithin from the Tuatha Dé dominion.

In all reality, the Balor Company had probably noticed that the secret ingredient was made from soybeans. The reason they hadn’t done anything with that knowledge was likely because they still didn’t know how to turn soybeans into lecithin. They were probably also afraid of upsetting me, or perhaps they were simply showing respect for the person responsible for all this success.

Despite being a merchant, Balor was a compassionate man. During my time as Illig, he treated me as if I’d truly been his biological son.

Even that gentleness was a calculated business strategy on his part, however. It was a common misconception that the best merchants were the ones who coldly ignored the emotions of others and sought only efficiency.

If that was how you operated, then people would be unlikely to want to cooperate with you long-term and your business would suffer. The very best merchants were able to use their hearts to make important decisions, and they invested time and money accordingly into whoever needed it. I learned as much from Balor.

“Lord Lugh, this is for you!”

“Please take this as a token of my gratitude.”

A number of people approached, handing me crops, cheese, meat from hunting, smoked fish, and more. I accepted them all without turning anyone away. Tarte and I quickly ended up with our hands full.

“They all love you so much, my lord,” Tarte said as proudly as if she were talking about herself.

“Yeah. That’s exactly why I want to bring prosperity to this domain, just like my father and his father before him.”

I was reincarnated into this world to be an assassin, but more important, I was the heir of House Tuatha Dé.

Not long after my return to the estate, Mother came up to me and gave me a big hug.

“Welcome hoooooooooooooome! I was so lonely without you here, Lugh! Ahhh, I missed your smell. You’re terrible, you know that? Last time you came home, you only talked to Cian about work and then left without seeing me!”

“… Can you not do this where people can see us? I have a position to maintain.”

“Impossible. I haven’t seen you in so long! Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm, I was so, so lonely. Lugh, you can’t leave us again. Whew, I’ve had my fill. Welcome home to you, too, Tarte. Thank you for staying with my boy. You can see how much I worry about him.”

“N-no need to thank me. I would’ve missed him even more than you did.”

“Is that so? Please continue to look after him! This boy always tries to do everything on his own, so I’m relieved he has someone like you around.”

“I-I’ll do my best!” Tarte stood up straight, her face blushing deep red.

I felt like she was taking my mother’s words the wrong way.

“Mother, where is Father?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s right. He wants you to meet him in the study. While you’re talking to Cian, I want Tarte to tell me all about your time in Milteu. You never told me anything about yourself in your letters, Lugh!”

“O-okay, I’ll tell you everything in full detail!” Tarte replied.

Hearing everything from Tarte, a girl who was closer to me than most anyone else, was sure to embarrass me. Saying anything to Mother about that would be a waste of my breath at this point, though, and Tarte easily relented when pushed, so telling her not to say anything wouldn’t do much, either.

So I resigned myself to my fate. All I could do was pray she didn’t talk about that .

How did I let that happen to me? I wondered. I supposed that, despite this being my second life, I was still in my teens. I was no more immune to the urges of nature than anyone else.

I left Tarte and went to the study.

Father took stock of me as soon as I entered, clearly evaluating me. He obviously wanted to see how much I’d grown over the last two years.

“Lugh, you’ve become a man,” he said at last.

“Yes, I reached the age of adulthood a month ago.”

Fourteen was when you graduated from adolescence in the Alvanian Kingdom. I was now an adult in the eyes of society. That meant I was of marriageable age.

Among nobility, it was common to arrange marriages far in advance while kids were still young and then hold the ceremony when they both turned fourteen.

However, only five years ago, a certain set of circumstances led to it becoming common practice in this country to wait until both partners turned sixteen.

“That’s not what I mean. Unfortunately, this country is overflowing with children who have long since reached maturity. You have become an adult in the true meaning of the word… Becoming a successful merchant was part of your trial, but I’d never imagined you would take that this far. There isn’t a single noble who doesn’t know of Natural You, the cosmetic brand of Illig Balor.”

“I invented moisturizer, a product capable of earning me a famed reputation as a merchant, and then made a plan to spread it…but everything that happened after that was thanks to Balor. He weaponized the popularity of moisturizer by attaching the brand to existing cosmetic products. In doing so, he rewrote the entire landscape of the cosmetics industry. His prowess was stunning to watch up close.”

I’d envisioned using moisturizer to bring about a revolution in the world of cosmetics, but things had advanced so much more quickly than I’d expected. Despite being there for every step of the process as the person in charge of the cosmetics project, I’d still been completely taken aback by the incredible support I’d received from the company.

Now Natural You was becoming one of the most popular brands in the world, and it was known for more than just moisturizer.

“That man is as skilled as a merchant can get. Just having the chance to compare yourself to him is a valuable experience. Before your trial, I explained that my purpose for sending you to Milteu to work as a merchant was so that you could learn about the world, build another identity that will be helpful to you as an assassin, and build personal connections. None of that was a lie. But I did have one more reason. Do you know what that was?” Father asked.

I shook my head. For once, I had no idea what it could’ve been.

“I wanted you to find a life outside of the Tuatha Dé clan. Lugh, you are capable of having a successful career as a merchant. There are many who desire that life. Balor even recommends that you leave our clan of assassins and devote yourself to being a businessman. If that’s in your best interest, then I… He’s not just saying that, you know. He told me that you brought in revenue worth twenty years of this domain’s tax revenue. It seems he wants you to support him as the second-highest executive in his company, and then one day support his son as well. If you choose that road, I won’t stop you.”

“What are you saying? The only reason I gained all that experience as a merchant was to better myself as an assassin,” I replied.

“Lugh, at this point it’s too late for me to choose any other way to live. You haven’t yet bloodied your hands with murder. You can still find another way… We Tuatha Dé have protected this country by removing harmful influences, but it will not do the same for us. If we’re ever revealed for what we are, the royal family will dispose of us as criminals to appease the nobility. Our loyalty to the country earns us no reward.” Father’s words were soft, and there was no charged change in his intonation. Despite the calm delivery, I still felt a chill run down my spine.

“I’ll be clear. Being disposed of if our assassin trade gets discovered is also part of our duty. It’s even possible the secret could leak from our employers’ side without us doing anything wrong… Preparing other identities as early as one’s birth is a form of insurance. When the country casts us aside, we’ll be able to escape and live as different people. I just want you to know that I’d understand if you quit this unforgiving life now in order to choose an easier way to live. So I’ll ask you one last time. Do you still choose to live as Lugh Tuatha Dé?”

Ever since I was young, I’d always been taught the value of the work House Tuatha Dé did. It was the members of House Tuatha Dé who were responsible for protecting the Alvanian Kingdom. Now, despite all his teachings, after all this time, my father had chosen to share with me this harsh reality.

Perhaps this timing was the very reason why he’d chosen to say anything in the first place.

Father wanted me to grapple with this question after I’d spent two years learning about the world but before I got started as an assassin and was unable to back out.

Before my reincarnation, I’d been raised only as a tool for killing. Not once had I ever spared a thought to the way I was used. I’d lived as a simple blade, devoid of doubt.

Things were different with Father, though. He’d raised me as an assassin, but he’d also taught me how to love.

Long ago, I’d decided to no longer live as a tool. I’d chosen to walk a path of my own free will.

“Father…no, Dad. I choose to live as a Tuatha Dé. I have something I need to do that I can only accomplish as a member of this family.”

I’d decided to call him “Dad” instead of “Father.” That was my way of showing him that I’d made this decision as a man. Now that I was older, I didn’t feel the need to be so formal with him anymore.

“Is this decision coming from a sense of justice? Are you saying you have the conviction to throw your life away for the sake of the country?” asked my dad.

“… That’s not it. I’m not that admirable of a person. It’s just that the people of Tuatha Dé and my acquaintances in Milteu are special to me, and I want this country to remain at peace. I don’t want the happiness I’ve gained to fall to ruin. That is most important to me. Even if the country does cast us aside, that’ll be no problem for me. I trained under you, so there’s no way I’d be so easily caught. After being outed, I’m sure I’d still be able to live as Illig if I needed to. Knowing that, I’m okay with the thought of being cast aside.”

That’s right, I wasn’t trying to assassinate the hero because someone ordered me to. I was doing it of my own volition—and for my own happiness.

Allowing myself to be pushed around as I had in my previous life was no longer an option.

Whether my client was the royal family or a goddess, I wasn’t about to follow anyone blindly. Never again would I allow myself to be killed.

Dad watched me without saying anything. I continued to speak.

“I do have one other reason. There is something I won’t be able to do if I leave House Tuatha Dé.”

“And what would that be? I can’t field a guess.”

“I am in love with Dia Viekone. I’m exchanging letters with her even now, and admittedly I have been crossing the border and sneaking into her estate to meet with her once a month. Slipping through the security at both the border and the count’s estate is excellent training. I’m thinking of marrying her someday…and you need a certain rank in order to marry a count’s daughter.”

I’d made time to meet with Dia even when I was in Milteu. So strong was my desire to see her that I’d even made use of Rapid Recovery, my massive mana capacity, and brand-new spells to increase my speed to the point where I could get all the way there and back in just one day.

I loved talking about new spells with her, watching the elation on her face, and writing down all the spells she had invented.

“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I’ve always thought you too perfect of a son. I never would’ve expected you to do something so foolish. I see. Dia. If that’s what you want, then by all means, welcome to the clan of assassins. I’ll get you started right away… This is an important job. There is a noble we must get rid of. He’s a wretched piece of work who’s selling military secrets to foreign nations in return for narcotics, and then spreading them throughout the country. The people are suffering as a result. He must be removed.”

It was almost unbelievable to me that a man could both be selling military secrets and subjugating his own country to drug addiction.

“I’ll take care of it. Two weeks should be all I need.”

“He’s all yours. I’m not going to give you any advice. Eliminate however you see fit.”

This was to be my first assassination in this world, and my target was a particularly harmful noble, at that. I was itching to put my skills to the test. This man was going to be disposed of efficiently, without so much as a trace left behind.

A much simpler target than the hero, of course, but it wasn’t bad for my first job.

Chapter 18 | The Assassin Gathers Information

The day I returned home, there was a grand celebration for me having reached adulthood.

The next morning, I sensed someone in my room, and I opened my eyes to see that my mom had sneaked in. As a trained killer, I had the ability to immediately wake up no matter how tired I’d been.

I pretended like I was sleeping, and she stared at me for a long time… Mainly at the lower half of my body.

Mom really hadn’t changed in the last few years. I’d grown a lot while I’d been gone, but she hadn’t visibly aged at all. I don’t know how she managed to look twenty-five years old despite actually being over forty. Perhaps the Tuatha Dé family had some sort of secret for preserving youth.

Were that true, it’d probably be a bigger hit than the moisturizer I’d created.

I sat up in bed.

“Good morning. Mom, what are you doing in here so early?”

“Drats. Nothing happened this morning.”

From that one sentence, I knew that Tarte had told her about the darkest moment of my life.

“… I’ve developed a countermeasure so I won’t have to deal with that again. Besides, if that happened every day, it’d be a serious illness.”

“Well, that’s disappointing.”

“Hold on, do you really want to see that kind of thing from your son?”

“I really want to see it! It’s proof that you’ve become an adult.”

I smiled reflexively.

Regarding that “darkest moment”…

It was fall of my thirteenth year. Tarte and Maha usually tried to hide this from me, but they were clearly starved for affection, prone to loneliness, and yearned for family.

Such a yearning was understandable, especially because they both lost their families at very young ages. Occasionally, the loneliness would become too much for them to bear, and I would let them sleep with me.

There was nothing lewd about it. All we did was sleep in the same bed. Feeling someone else’s body heat helped them to relax.

This custom also helped bring us closer together. The trouble was, I hadn’t quite understood the desire of my developing teenage body. That’s not to say I lost control to the point where I did anything stupid like put my hands on either Tarte or Maha, though.

One ominous day, Tarte and Maha had coincidentally both asked if they could spend the night with me, and we all ended up sleeping together. We all happily greeted the morning together. That’s when everything went tragically south. Tarte sniffed a few times and said that she smelled something weird. Maha agreed and craned her neck, and then I panicked upon realizing the sticky state of my lower body.

There couldn’t have been a worse time to have a wet dream.

I hadn’t had many of them in my first life, and this had been my first ejaculation as Lugh Tuatha Dé, so it took me a bit of time to realize what had happened, which is why Tarte and Maha had caught on first.

I knew I’d never forget the looks on their faces. They both blushed deep red and looked away, shyly peering toward my mess.

I’d always regarded the two as family and acted as both a father figure and a brother to them, and then I’d allowed something that disgraceful to happen. I wanted to smash something. Or die.

I could feel everything I’d built crashing down around me.

For some reason, the fact that Tarte and Maha didn’t hate me for it but instead were clearly concerned for me made it so much worse.

“Master Illig, um, please ask for my help from now on! I’m your retainer, so I can give you that kind of service as well! It will be so hard for you if you just let it build up! This is a necessary service!” Tarte insisted.

“… Dear brother, even if you call me your sister, your body doesn’t lie. Sometimes I wonder whether you want me to be your sister or your lover. Isn’t it possible for me to be both?” Maha asked.

I couldn’t believe they were so considerate as to be able to make jokes at a time like that. As a result, that horrifying scene had ended with laughter, and I was able to maintain my dignity as their father figure and older brother. After that, they’d asked to sleep with me much more frequently, for reasons that continued to elude me.

From then on, I took special care to ensure that shameful incident would never occur again. I didn’t want Maha or Tarte to have to see anything so unsightly. I even devised a countermeasure to prevent any future explosions.

My own body sure was annoying. The sexual appetite of a young adult was truly something to behold.

Not even an assassin could escape the shackles of the human body.

Mom refused to leave the room when I was trying to change, saying she wanted to “see my grown-up body,” so I chased her out, got ready, and went to the dining room.

The breakfast Tarte prepared for me was waiting on the table, and once I sat down, she stationed herself behind me. Unsurprisingly, the girl’s cooking was as tasty as ever.

This meal was extra enjoyable because it’d been made with Tuatha Dé ingredients, which made me feel nostalgic and increased my appetite.

After I’d finished eating, Mom walked into the room with a wide smile on her face. She handed me a proposal for a wife.

There were no digital photos in this world, so hand-drawn portraits were sent before meetings that arranged to judge compatibility for marriage.

As it happened, this was actually the fourth girl Mom had brought to my attention. All of the girls so far had been beautiful, held good social standing, and were close to my age. From an objective standpoint, they’d all been perfectly fine candidates.

Although Tuatha Dé didn’t have the highest annual tax revenue, it was well known that we made a lot of income through the medical trade. The family also had strong connections with major noble families. As such, we never hurt for marriage proposals.

Tarte, still stationed behind me, seemed to be in something of a bad mood.

“Mom, I’ve told you I don’t need these. I have no plans to take a marriage interview.”

I was already in love with Dia, so I didn’t need to meet anyone.

Tarte breathed a sigh of relief.

Most noble families used the marriage of their oldest son as a tool to make connections or increase their family’s rank among the noble hierarchy. Undoubtedly, many investigations were conducted to find the most suitable partner for any one candidate. My parents and I didn’t have an interest in that kind of thing, however.

If our family rose beyond the rank of baron, there’d be an increase in responsibilities. Doubtless, we’d have to attend more annoying social functions. The current size and standing of the domain suited Tuatha Dé just fine.

The reason Mom was bringing me these marriage proposals was probably because she was excited to have new babies to dote on.

“Oh, come oooon, Lugh. I found a really good girl this time. I want to meet my grandchildren!”

… Just as I thought.

Tarte looked like she wanted to say something, so I allowed her to speak.

“I think it’s too soon for Lord Lugh to marry.”

“It’s not too soon! He’s already an adult. If he takes too long, I’ll be an old woman before I have any grandchildren. Oh, wait, could you have his babies, Tarte?! …Hey, that would work, actually. You have mana, and you’re not a noble, so the number of annoying parties we have to go to wouldn’t increase. That’s a good bargain. I have a feeling you’d be able to have children right away, too.”

“Wha—? U-umm…if that’s what my lord desires.” Tarte blushed deep red all the way to her ears at my mom’s relentless teasing.

There was no need for her to take that joke so seriously.

“Mom, stop picking on Tarte.”

“I’m not picking on her. And, Lugh, I’ve been meaning to bring this up, but you’ve been talking back to me quite a lot lately! What kind of tone is that to use with your mother?”

“I’m an adult now, so I feel like I should speak like one. I’m not a little kid anymore.”

I’d considered continuing to play the good child in front of Mom, but…parents needed to be able to let go of their children.

“Awwww, come on, Lugh. I can’t take it! My cute little baby has become so brash!”

Evidently, my mom took no notice that treating me like a child was going to make me want to behave the way she wanted even less.

When night fell, I released two pigeons into the sky.

A letter had recently arrived from Maha, who was still in Milteu. She was running my cosmetic brand, Natural You, in my absence.

It was a lot for her to handle on her own, but Beruid was helping out as her assistant.

Beruid had received a high-quality education from a young age, and he had connections in various places. He had a wealth of real-world experience, too. Often, he’d sat in on my classes for Tarte and Maha, and proved to be a fast learner. That played no small part in enabling him to become the skilled businessman he was today.

Even though I was the representative of the overwhelmingly successful Natural You brand, I’d still been surprised to learn that he wanted to take classes from me, considering that he was heir to the Balor Company.

I told Maha to make effective use of him—and to learn from him, too. Just as he had a lot to learn from me, I was sure there was a lot that could be learned from Beruid.

My letter of reply contained two orders for Maha.

The first order was to gather information on Count Azba Venkaur, my current assassination target. Count Venkaur’s wife was a Natural You customer, so the company likely had some intel on her already.

I wanted Maha to use that as a starting point and perform a thorough investigation into Count Venkaur.

With this job, I wasn’t sure if it was wise to take my employer’s information at face value. That’s why I needed my own reports on the mark.

My second order was to send a letter to Count Venkaur’s wife informing her that Illig Balor wanted to visit her to show her a new product.

If Count Venkaur had anything to hide, he was likely to be extra wary, making it difficult to get near him. His wife, on the other hand, was sure to welcome Illig into her home, as he represented Natural You.

The requested data arrived four days later.

Maha had ended up sending me stacks of files, all of which had been transported via horse-drawn carriage to conceal them as a mere cosmetics shipment.

Natural You performed regular shipments of goods to members, and because my mom was a member, there was nothing unusual about a delivery arriving from Milteu.

Creating a membership program with regular home deliveries had been one of my proposals. The shipments included products a grade above what could be found in the store, and they were delivered monthly. It was a service targeted at the truly wealthy and, as a result, came with a heavy price tag.

The service transported reliably high-quality products in exchange for large, regular payments. The system gave Natural You a steady source of revenue from wealthy clients, and it had worked to successfully prevent the resale of products.

If you could afford this service, then you could avoid the war zone that was the storefront every day. What’s more, being sent special products most people couldn’t obtain gave the buyer a sense of superiority that upper-class people couldn’t resist. The number of members quickly exceeded capacity, and being a Natural You member had even become a symbol of status.

“Maha works quickly. So he really is spreading narcotics. This guy really is something.”

The size of the Balor Company information network was truly incredible. Count Azba Venkaur had previously caught the attention of the Balor Company while up to some criminal activity in Milteu, and they’d been keeping files on him ever since.

Narcotics brought misfortune to all but those who sold them.

Count Venkaur would get young nobles addicted by inviting them to try the drugs at secret parties, and it appeared he also made use of a criminal network to spread them throughout cities.

In particular, the narcotic he sold was derived from an evergreen shrub called vieze. Technically, it was a stimulant.

Stimulants increased activity in the brain, heightened the senses, and caused a state of excitement. Put simply, they made you high. In exchange for the feeling of euphoria, your body ended up becoming extremely dependent on them.

Milteu was able to prevent the narcotics from entering the city, but neighboring towns ended up suffering deeply from the addictive nature of the drug.

“Guess there’s no choice but to kill him.”

This count was selling narcotics in such a roughshod manner that he’d already ended up on the Balor Company’s radar. It was only a matter of time until his actions went public.

However, when accused of being responsible for trading narcotics, Count Venkaur feigned ignorance about the whole thing, saying he was unaware of the mafia transporting the drugs through his domain. He ended up arresting a small-time criminal and pinning the blame on him, thereby crediting himself for solving the problem.

Large bribes to a high-ranking official had likely also helped him get away with it.

Since such an excuse had actually worked, Count Venkaur likely had enough support from other nobles that the royal family was unable to touch him.

The steady increase of narcotics being dealt bothered me. If left alone, the entire Alvanian Kingdom risked being plunged into addiction.

Since the law couldn’t bring him to justice, there was no choice but to remove the pest through assassination.

Such was the duty of House Tuatha Dé.

Chapter 19 | The Assassin’s First Assassination

Our carriage bumped along the road.

Countess Venkaur had eagerly bit at the invitation Maha had sent her to see a new product, writing in her response that she definitely wanted me to come.

I’d dyed my hair black and put on glasses to take on the image of Illig once again. While in disguise, I had to make sure to act like Illig Balor all the time, even if no one was watching.

Maha was sitting next to me. She was cheerfully humming despite her usual reserved personality.

“We haven’t seen each other in so long, dear brother,” she said.

“It hasn’t even been a month.”

“For me, ten days is way too long a time to go without seeing you.”

Behaving like a spoiled child, Maha leaned on me.

“You didn’t need to come, Maha. As the true Natural You representative, I could’ve done this alone.”

“That may be true, but I wanted to see you. I was careful to make proper preparations to ensure the company would be fine without me for a day. Beruid is there, too, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Guess that won’t be a problem.”

“… By the way, Illig, it looks like I’ll be able to get one of those things you asked for.”

A while back, I’d asked Maha to look into finding a divine treasure.

In this world, there existed weapons and items that could not be forged by man and possessed unfathomable strength. They were made with technology and materials that exceeded current understanding. As such, they were referred to as divine treasures.

One such item was the magic spear Gáe Bolg, a weapon wielded by a man who was known by the nickname Kran’s Hound. Coincidentally, that guy was one I’d judged to have the highest probability of becoming the hero.

Another example was the magic blade Fragarach, an ancient sword wielded by a legend from a great war fought many years ago.

Such weapons were undoubtedly going to make killing the hero much easier. That’s why I’d been spending some of my excess funds in an effort to obtain at least one divine treasure.

I was also hoping that once I was able to set my eyes on a real divine treasure, I’d be able to study it in order to create stronger weapons and spells.

“I can always count on you to help me out, Maha. Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome… So, Illig. Have there been any developments with Tarte since you went home? In a girl-boy sort of way?” Maha asked.

“Of course not.”

Maha sighed in exasperation at my words.

“Really? Hasn’t it been difficult? Up until now, you’d been going to a brothel in order to relieve yourself, but isn’t it going to be torture for you without brothels in the Tuatha Dé domain? Every time you went to see Dia or went to a brothel, Tarte looked like she was going to cry, you know. I’m sure she’d be happy to help you out herself.”

I stifled a gag, both because Maha had found out about the brothel and because of the way she’d worded that last sentence.

“Why are you trying to push me into that kind of relationship?” I asked.

“It just bothers me that you’re trying to run away from your romantic feelings for us,” Maha explained.

“We’re family. We’ve been that way for years now.”

I’d been raising them for a number of years now. I could still vividly recall the early days after I’d first met them both. Surely Maha was mistaken.

“When we were younger, we definitely thought of you as our dependable older brother. But we’re growing up. And when you grow up, you develop these types of feelings. If a girl has a guy as attractive as you in her midst every day, how could she not fall in love? …The worst thing about it is how you continue to ignore us. Tarte is the type to bottle up all her frustration without making a single complaint. If you continue to take this attitude with her, she’ll explode.” Maha spoke in a serious and earnest tone.

Ah, I see. So she’s doing this for Tarte.

“Fine. Just once, I’ll throw away my preconceptions and give Tarte some attention. That doesn’t mean I can return her feelings, though,” I explained.

“Because of Dia, I’m sure. I don’t think that would be a problem, though. Tarte might always be second place for you, or a girl you only see occasionally, but she’d be fine with anything as long as you loved her. There’s no more convenient arrangement than that, you know. She’s also cute and well-endowed, besides. You’re a nobleman—it’s expected for you to take a few mistresses.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course it is. So are you finally able to wrap your head around the fact that you have two girls who love you?”

“Wait, two girls?”

“I’m in love with you, too, but my all-out attack is going to have to come a little later. I’m going to continue to grow the Natural You brand and perfect the information network, and once I become completely indispensable, I’ll use that as a pretext in my negotiation. It’s like you taught me, dear brother. You must be on equal terms with your negotiating partner, or you won’t get the deal you want.”

Maha certainly had put an astounding amount of effort into it all. The truth was that the girl was already a supremely vital asset. If she became any more important than she already was, I would never be able to get along without her.

“You really are an excellent apprentice,” I said.

“That’s right, so you’d better prepare yourself,” Maha replied, glancing up at me with a smile. Such a flirtatious gesture actually caught me off guard for a moment.

That young girl I’d found at the orphanage was becoming a woman. Failing to notice something that obvious meant I still had a long way to go.

We arrived in the Venkaur domain.

The region was quite lush, with farmland that stretched for miles. In some ways, it resembled the Tuatha Dé domain.

Apart from the dangerous-looking men carrying swords out on patrol, that is.

A few of those guards approached our carriage.

Count Venkaur was probably employing this kind of private army because he had something to hide.

One of them opened one of the carriage’s windows and greeted me with a wide smile.

“What business do you have in Venkaur?” he asked menacingly. I grinned in response.

“We are representatives of Natural You, good sir. We came to offer Countess Venkaur an exclusive look at a brand-new product. This is the invitation we received from her ladyship.”

Once I showed him the letter, he told us to follow them. It seemed like the guards had been made aware of our coming.

The sight of the estate took me by great surprise.

While the land felt similar to the Tuatha Dé domain, the manor could not have been more different. The building was grand and luxurious, different in every way down to the material used to build it. There was no way this kind of place could’ve been built on money from this domain alone.

“Oh, look who it is! Welcome, welcome, my dears. I’ve been waiting in great anticipation for this new Natural You product.”

The lavish front door to the mansion opened, and a short, round woman walked up to greet us wearing a glittering dress that brought to mind the image of a goldfish.

A number of rings clinked together on both of her hands, and a giant sapphire hung from her necklace. She was also wearing makeup so thick that gaudy wouldn’t even begin to describe it.

“Countess Venkaur, thank you very much for your invitation. I’m particularly proud of this new product, and I wanted a true lady as beautiful as yourself to be the first to use it,” I said.

“Ooh, you flatter me. Please come in! My skin has been in such great condition ever since I started applying Natural You’s moisturizer. I’m sure this next product will be just as wonderful.”

Just like that, we were in the house.

The new cosmetic product I’d prepared was actually a new form of moisturizer.

I’d added a smidge of almond oil to the olive oil that was used in the recipe. This helped to enhance the scent while also improving the coloring of the skin when applied. I’d also improved the medicinal ingredients.

They were admittedly minor changes, but with the kind of person the countess was, the special treatment of getting to try a brand-new product before anyone else in the world did was going to outweigh the quality of the product.

Maha and I complimented Countess Venkaur relentlessly.

“It is exactly because you understand quality, my lady, that I wanted you to be the first to try this product,” I would say.

“If it meets the approval of Countess Venkaur, other women will be dying to use it themselves,” Maha would add.

Throughout the conversation, we continually peppered in such comments. The countess fell hook, line, and sinker for the simple compliments and quickly became cheerful.

This really is too easy.

With the countess in such a friendly mood, all we needed to do was make idle conversation that would extract the information we needed via seemingly nonchalant questions.

When we asked her how the economy in Venkaur was so prosperous, the countess answered that it was because business with foreign nations had been going well. She said she didn’t know any details about the trade itself, however, and it didn’t appear that she was lying. The countess was truly ignorant about her husband’s dealings.

That came as a relief. If she’d known, I would’ve had to kill her, too.

Maha and I continued to gather information.

“My husband likes nothing more than to enjoy a glass of wine on the balcony at night before he goes to bed.”

Such a seemingly innocuous statement was actually an incredibly useful bit of intel.

“It’s truly great that my husband’s business has been so successful. It was only two or three years ago that we were a poor noble family that couldn’t afford much in the way of luxury. I’m so happy that I can dress so beautifully now. So happy indeed!”

“Yes, we’ll have to thank him as well. It is because of his success that we were given the privilege of seeing you in such exquisite form, Countess Venkaur,” I said.

“Oh, you’re making me blush… Oh-ho-ho-ho!” Countess Venkaur laughed jovially.

She really had no clue. This woman was utterly ignorant to how many soldiers had died as a result of the information her husband had sold to foreign countries. She lived unaware that people throughout the country had been reduced to hollow shells because of crippling drug addiction.

As in my previous life, I was an assassin. But this time, I was not a simple tool. Who I killed and when was up to me. If there’d been any doubt in my mind before, the conversation with the countess had erased it.

I was going to kill Count Venkaur.

Three days later, I returned to the manor with Tarte.

While Tarte had been absent during the initial visit, she was my assistant, and I was going to need her for the job.

The estate was in a fantastic defensive position, but as I’d expected, finding a spot to hide three hundred meters from the building proved to be quite easy.

The security was tighter than it was three days ago, which probably meant Count Venkaur had returned home.

I’d hidden in the thick grass of a small hill with a good view of the estate. Using earth magic, I’d dug a shallow hole in the ground, laid down in it, and then covered myself in grass.

The sun had already set, so no one was going to notice me at such a distance.

Without the information I gained three days ago, Tarte and I probably would’ve had to camp out for a few days while we waited for the count’s return, and killing him would’ve been much more difficult, as we would’ve had to sneak into his estate.

Thankfully, his wife had ended up happily volunteering both the day he would return and the information that would allow me to kill him without entering the manor.

I clutched a gun made from magic. It was already loaded with tungsten bullets.

Mages always had their bodies enveloped in some amount of mana, even when they weren’t intentionally doing so. This made them stronger than normal people, so normal methods wouldn’t be able to kill them.

Such was true of Count Venkaur, but even then, Gun Strike was more than enough to end his life.

My Tuatha Dé eyes allowed me to clearly see the second-floor balcony, even from such a great distance. Gathering my focus, I drove everything but that veranda from my field of vision.

Tarte was there to stand guard while I focused on the assassination. Her presence was what allowed me to concentrate entirely on sniping the count.

After about ten minutes, a fat middle-aged man wearing a bathrobe and holding a glass of wine walked out onto the balcony. He looked up at the moon with a contented smile. It was the face of a man who thought himself to be the happiest person in the world.

“My husband likes nothing more than to enjoy a glass of wine on the balcony at night before he goes to bed.”

The countess’s words had proved true. It was thanks to that unknowing woman that her husband was going to die.

Count Venkaur stood there just staring at the moon, totally still and totally defenseless. Admittedly, it made him a very convenient target.

There was hardly any breeze that night. At a distance of three hundred meters, there was no way I was going to miss.

I caused an explosion in the cylinder using fire magic.

There was a special cushion covering the barrel that acted as a silencer. As a result, my shot made almost no sound.

The extremely heavy and hard tungsten bullet rocketed from the rifle close to the speed of sound, reaching its target in less than a second.

With such overwhelming force that it took the count’s head off his shoulders, the bullet easily penetrated the skull.

“Time to withdraw.”

“Yes, my lord,” answered Tarte, and we escaped into the mountain.

No one would’ve thought to look for assailants along the mountain road, and it allowed us to easily emerge on the high ground from the other side of the peak.

This world was devoid of the concept of sniping. Shortly, they’d be looking for an assassin in the estate who was never even there. We’d be able to escape without issue.

The bullet penetrated both the target’s skull and the wall, so it wouldn’t even be found at the scene of the crime.

My first assassination in this world was a success.

I’d decided on my own that the assassination had been necessary, and I’d performed it of my own will.

My former self didn’t feel anything after a kill, but how did my new self feel?

Though only slightly, I could feel my heartbeat speeding up. Then, for some reason, I came to a complete stop, unable to move. It was a strange feeling, one I couldn’t understand.

Tarte turned around, concerned. She slowly walked toward me and gave me a hug.

“Tarte, why?” I asked.

“I don’t know. You just looked scared.”

“… Did I?”

I gave myself up to instinct and hugged her back.

Tarte grinned cheerfully and held me tighter. She smelled nice. Somehow the action calmed me down. Tarte’s softness and warmth enabled me to regain my senses.

… I finally understood what Maha meant when she’d said that Tarte was growing up.

I took a deep breath, and suddenly everything was okay. I was back to my normal self.

“Sorry about that. Let’s go,” I said.

“Okay!” Tarte replied cheerily.

The two of us promptly resumed our escape down the mountain road.

Count Venkaur’s wife would surely hate whoever killed her husband. He’d been an ideal husband in her eyes, and she’d known nothing of his many illicit activities.

I never came to regret what I did that night, but I made a point not to forget it, either.

That’s what was required of Lugh Tuatha Dé.

Chapter 20 | The Assassin Makes a Decision

My first assassination as Lugh Tuatha Dé had been executed to perfection.

Just as the royal family asked, I’d killed my target in a way that ensured that anyone who saw him knew it had been murder. The royal family had wanted to make an example of the count to send the message that this was what would happen to any noble who dared to think they could get away with anything they wanted.

Without any evidence of connection to the royal family, no one would be able to point fingers to the ruling party, either. At the same time, the general feeling was that the royal family was behind such assassinations, but without proof, no one could say anything. In this way, many nobbles toed the line out of fear that they would be next.

“If only killing the hero could be as easy as this was,” I muttered while running down the mountain road.

I had high hopes for the new formula that I was going to test in three days on the uninhabited island that Maha had found for me. The magic I’d devised was strong enough to obliterate anything for hundreds of meters in all directions. That’s why it could only be tested somewhere without people.

I had high hopes that it might even be able to kill the hero.

It’d now been three months since my first assassination.

I was relaxing on a hill with a really nice view. This had come to be my favorite spot.

In the last three months, I’d been busy with training, magic development, raising capital, and expanding the information network as Illig Balor. I’d even performed two more assassinations.

That many kills in such a short amount of time was an absurd pace. I suppose it was a good indicator of how rotten the Alvanian Kingdom had become.

Nobles were left mostly to do as they pleased, so long as they paid their due in taxes to the royal family. They were allowed so much freedom, it enabled them to make laws within their respective domains.

Their other duties really only included conscription of soldiers and the contribution of funds and food during times of war.

This excess of time and money inevitably led to many nobles growing overambitious.

Many nobles even saw themselves not as subjects of the king but as the rulers of their own little countries. Unless drastic measures were taken, more upstarts like Count Venkaur were likely to crop up.

“I defeated Ronah today, my lord! With that, I’m now up two wins to one.”

A cheerful Tarte addressed me as I was lying on the hill, breaking my train of thought. Judging by her heavy breathing, she’d probably run all the way here right after her fight with Ronah, hoping to earn my praise.

“Beating Ronah means you’re probably able to handle any of this kingdom’s knights. Was he angry?” I asked.

“… Only a little. I’ve got a message from Ronah, actually. He said he wants to train under you, because he’s interested in the training regimen that made a girl like me strong enough to beat him,” Tarte replied.

“It must’ve been a shock to hear someone as proud as Ronah ask for help with training. But you did great.”

While only a member of the branch family, my cousin Ronah was a mage and was still a bearer of the Tuatha Dé name. As such, he was already receiving high-quality training. Two years ago, he’d possessed enough power to rival the strongest knights in the country, but since then, he’d succeeded in becoming even stronger.

It was actually because I’d judged Tarte and Ronah to be of relatively equal strength that I’d ordered Tarte to challenge my cousin to some practice fights.

Tarte had lost the first, narrowly won the second, and easily won the third. She really was improving quickly.

“I’m your retainer and assistant. I have to be able to handle at least this much! …Huh? Isn’t that Maiya? It looks like she’s calling us.”

Maiya was one of our longest-serving retainers. Judging by her panic, it seemed like something serious had happened.

We hurried back to the mansion, where I was greeted by the smell of blood. Most of it had been cleaned up, but there was enough left that my nose caught the scent.

There was no sign of a fight. The blood instead seemed to have come from a heavily wounded guest who just arrived at our estate. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t likely to be very pleasant.

I entered the study to find my dad. His face was usually rather expressionless when he was working, but today it appeared especially rigid.

“Lugh, we just received a request. I want you to handle it,” he said.

“Is it of the behind-the-scenes sort?” I asked.

“Of course. It’s okay if you refuse the job. Honestly, it’s one you’d be better off not accepting, but I’ll leave it up to you… The request is to assassinate a count’s daughter in the neighboring country of Soigel… Dia Viekone.”

I felt my heart drop.

Dia was my magic mentor as well as my friend. Not to mention I had feelings for her.

I’m being asked to kill her?

“There are two things I’m unclear on. First, wouldn’t it be problematic to interfere in the affairs of a foreign country? Second, the Tuatha Dé clan only performs assassinations for the benefit of our nation. I can’t see how killing Dia would benefit anyone.”

“This hit holds none of the honor of our usual work. It’s a hit born purely of self-interest. That’s why I’m leaving it up to you. This job is not just for the good of the country. We risk this blowing up into an international incident if our involvement is in any way exposed.”

It was true. If it ever came out that we killed a high-ranking member of a foreign country, it could ignite a war.

“… Give me the details. Why do we have to kill Dia? Does it have something to do with the civil war in Soigel? Count Viekone sided with the king and lost, but his house paid its indemnities and should have been left alone after the war.”

With the Balor Company information network at my disposal, there was no way I wouldn’t have known about such a large event, even if it’d been in another country.

Soigel suffered from the same problems as Alvan. Namely, the level of power retained by the nobility and the growing ambitions of many of its members.

The difference was that Soigel had no Tuatha Dé clan.

As a result, the upper class had grown exceedingly impudent, and finally, many had one day declared the king an incompetent and negligent ruler. Declaring themselves the proper rulers of the kingdom, the nobles banded together and started a rebellion…which they won.

As soon as I’d heard about the civil war, and that House Viekone had picked the side of the royal family and lost, I’d rushed to Dia to see if she was okay. I told her I was prepared to use Illig Balor’s influence to ensure asylum for her whole family.

Dia had responded by saying that they were fine, and she told me not to come back until things had settled down.

“Oh, you know that much already? Then I’ll continue from there. Count Viekone lost and surrendered half of his wealth and land just as he was told… However, things didn’t end there, unfortunately. Dia draws a lot of attention. She’s beautiful, and she also possesses very powerful mana. As mana is inherited from one’s parents…you’d be hard-pressed to find a greedy nobleman who wasn’t trying to get ahold of her.”

Evidently, paying the indemnities hadn’t been enough to ensure the Viekone family’s safety. I’d naively underestimated the greed of mankind.

As I thought about it, there had been something strange when I’d talked with Dia about the revolution.

No way. Did she know this was going to happen, and prepare herself for it?

“Count Viekone planned to do whatever he was told. Likewise, Dia also wished to avoid needless bloodshed. The trouble is, their vassals couldn’t accept that. One thing led to another, and they ended up killing an envoy who’d arrived to take Dia away. At the same time, all the vassals tendered letters of resignation and announced they were going to fight back. They even went as far as to gather volunteer soldiers from among the citizens of the domain. Now they’re barricading themselves in the castle and holding Count Viekone and Dia inside. Indirectly though it may be, House Viekone has started a second rebellion. An army has already been dispatched their way, and fighting has begun.”

Count Viekone and Dia seemed to have been truly beloved by their people. Normally, citizens of a domain couldn’t care less who their lord was, thinking that had little effect on their day-to-day lives.

Admittedly, all the nobles whom I’d killed had been replaced with puppets of the royal family, and there’d been no disapproval from the citizenry. Despite this more commonplace indifference, the commoners of the Viekone domain had resolved to take up arms and fight for their rulers of their own accord, all in an attempt to protect Dia.

“So we’ve been asked to end a war in its early stages by killing Dia and her father, therefore removing the will of their citizens to fight… Is that what you’re going to say? Who in the world requested that? This doesn’t seem like the kind of thing the Tuatha Dé clan should get involved in,” I said.

“Our client is Count Viekone himself. His loyal retainer gave his life to convey this request,” my dad explained.

“Why?”

“Listen to the end. The details of the request are to fake Dia’s assassination and get her to safety. Even if their vassals win this battle, enemy reinforcements will soon arrive, effectively rendering their efforts pointless. This is the only way to save Dia, and we’re the only ones who can pull it off.”

Now it made sense. The deaths of those who’d started the rebellion were unavoidable at this point. Vastly outnumbered, Dia and the count couldn’t be saved, no matter how they fought. In such a case, faking Dia’s death was the only way she was going to get out of there alive.

“I understand the situation, but what I still don’t get is why you accepted this request. I never would have thought you the type to forgo our family creed,” I stated.

“You’re overestimating me. I have strayed from our tenets once before. I don’t doubt you’ve had your suspicions about this already, but Esri is a daughter of House Viekone. Which makes Dia your cousin. I have to repay my debt to Count Viekone. If he wants to save Dia, then that’s what I want, too. I owe that to him,” Dad explained.

“And what if I refuse?”

“The job would be impossible to complete. I would go, but I am not fast enough to make it. By the time I got there, it’d all be over. It has to be you, Lugh. Don’t think of it as a job. This is simply a personal request from me to you. One that also happens to deviate from our family creed.”

If the heavily wounded messenger who’d delivered this request was anything to judge by, the fighting had begun already.

Soigel bordered the Alvanian Kingdom, but the Viekone domain was over three hundred kilometers away, on a path that crossed two mountains.

Increasing your physical capabilities had a limit, and anyone with a normal amount of mana would’ve run out long before they got there.

It would’ve probably taken my dad two days, with him needing to take breaks along the way. On the other hand, I could get there in a few hours. It probably took the vassal three days to get here, but with my speed, I knew I could make it back in time.

Taking on this task was a bad idea. There was no defendable cause, and there was even a risk it’d bring harm to the Alvanian Kingdom.

I had to laugh. Hadn’t I decided that I wouldn’t repeat the mistakes I’d made in my first life? I wasn’t a tool. I made my own decisions.

That’s why I had to follow my heart.

“Dad… I accept this request.”

“Tell me your reasoning.”

“I have three. First, I owe Dia a debt for teaching me how to use magic. Second, I’m in love with her. Third, I made her a promise to come running when she calls for me. She’s definitely calling for me right now.”

I grasped the Fahr Stone necklace that Dia had given me when she’d left Tuatha Dé.

One more thing. Remember when you said you would do anything I want as thanks? I’m asking for that favor now. If I ever need to see you, promise you’ll drop everything and come running to me!

There was no doubting Dia needed me now. It was time to fulfill that promise.

It was undoubtedly a very dangerous situation to walk into, but I had to follow my heart.

“Is that so? …Only one time in my life have I used my blade for anything other than our family’s service to the Alvanian Kingdom. Do you know what that was for?” asked my dad.

“No. I can’t imagine you doing that sort of thing.”

“It was for Esri. I never would’ve imagined my son would end up doing the same thing. I didn’t think you were anything like me, but it seems we’re similar in the most unexpected of ways… Good luck.”

I nodded, then felt a wave of emotion come over me. My dad had also strayed from our family’s beliefs for my mom. We really were alike. This was the kind of thing that deepened familial bonds.

Leaving the room, I had a brief conversation with the foreign vassal who was being treated in a neighboring chamber. Once finished, I hastily departed.

This was an assassination to save Dia’s life, and I was going to see it done.

Chapter 21 | The Assassin Makes Haste

When I left the mansion, Tarte was waiting for me, dressed and ready to go.

“I brought your equipment, my lord. I’m also ready to head out.”

With all possible speed, I took the gear and donned it. Tarte had been eavesdropping on my conversation with Dad. We’d both been aware, of course, but we’d allowed it. I’d trusted that Tarte would use that information to prepare for departure.

“Our destination is over three hundred kilometers away. I’m going to head there at my full speed. You won’t be able to keep up.”

My work was much easier when Tarte was with me, but I couldn’t rely on her this time. Unless I moved as fast as I could, I wouldn’t make it there in time.

“I know we can’t go together, my lord. But I can at least help you along until I run out of stamina. Even with Rapid Recovery, your stamina and recovery rate won’t keep up when you go that quickly. Let’s go!”

Without waiting for my reply, Tarte used an original wind spell I’d taught her.

This spell redirected airflow to create an aerodynamic wind barrier, thereby reducing air resistance and allowing you to move at higher speeds.

Tarte took off at a full sprint, while I followed behind her.

Wind resistance was a big deal. Once an object exceeded forty kilometers an hour, its kinetic energy was halved as it expended energy to push air out of the way. As speed increased, air resistance increased exponentially.

Running at my full strength would’ve normally expended more stamina and mana than my Rapid Recovery skill could keep up with.

With Tarte redirecting the airflow in front of me, I could avoid that. This enabled me to move at a pace near my full speed while consuming stamina and mana at a rate that Rapid Recovery could handle.

Tarte was really giving it her all. It was undoubtedly taking serious mental energy and stamina to create the wind barrier while still running to keep up with me at the same time.

Even from behind, I could tell that Tarte’s breathing was pained and that she was drenched in sweat. Still, the girl refused to slow her pace. She managed to carry on like that for around an hour, and when she finally came to a stop, her legs were trembling.

It was clear that Tarte had hit her limit. Actually, she’d likely reached her natural maximum a while back. Sheer force of will had driven her beyond that point, but even that had only been able to keep her going for a finite amount of time.

“I’m sorry. This is all I can do for you,” Tarte forced out in between heavy breaths.

I walked up from behind her and put an arm around her shoulders.

“Thank you, Tarte. Because of you, I was able to preserve some of my strength.”

With the energy I’d saved because of her efforts, I could go all out now without depleting my strength.

“… You really love Dia, don’t you, my lord?” she asked.

“I do,” I answered.

“Then I wish you luck. Please bring her home safely. I’ll be waiting for your return.” Tarte smiled, gave me a light push on the back, and sat down on the ground.

Despite the grin, she looked like she was going to cry.

“There’s no need to worry. I’ll be back.”

Leaving Tarte behind, I took off. If I’d stopped then, it would’ve only been a waste of her efforts and words of encouragement.

I charged forward with everything I had.

As I sprinted across the land, I took hair dye out of the backpack that Tarte had prepared for me and colored my hair. I then disguised my face and wrapped it in a scarf to conceal it.

The hope was that such a facade would prevent the small chance of House Tuatha Dé’s involvement being discovered. The path to the Viekone estate wasn’t as the crow flew—it required you to cross winding forest trails and mountain roads.

I caught sight of the first of the two mountains you have to cross. This was the most difficult part of the journey.

If I wanted to get to the Viekone domain in just a few hours, I couldn’t afford to cross both mountains on foot. Dashing along, I climbed to the summit of the first mountain. With a running start, I leaped from the cliff while performing an incantation.

“Wings of Steel!”

Just like Gun Strike and my other spells, this was an original spell I’d created using Spell Weaver.

I produced a lightweight hang glider made of aluminum. This was a shortcut I’d devised. By jumping off the summit of the first mountain, I was able to drift through the air and skip over the second mountain entirely.

The wings of the hang glider caught the wind, and I soared through the air.

The wind brushed against my cheeks. The glider didn’t have any sort of power of its own—it was simply riding on the air.

Without an updraft, my altitude would slowly drop. If it fell too much, I wouldn’t be able to cross the second mountain. Since I wasn’t getting any wind, I decided to simply make some of my own.

“Summon Wind!”

As I rode the updraft I’d created, my altitude rose spectacularly.

In no time at all, I’d made it past the second peak. I was nearly there.

Once I’d landed, I slipped past the border into Soigel and began to sprint. On the way, I ate some provisions and used magic to summon water to quench my thirst. It took me just over five hours to cover the 322-kilometer distance.

There was a reason I’d been able to arrive so quickly, and while avoiding detection at that. It was because I’d made this journey many times in order to see Dia.

Without my regular trips, I would’ve been forced to rely on the crude maps of this world to find my way. I would have never made it in time using such a method. Getting to Dia’s place during my very first trip had not been easy. Never would I have thought that my monthly secret meetings with Dia would come in handy for such an unexpected disaster.

When I at last arrived, I quickly found that much of the domain and the town that surrounded the Viekone estate had become a war zone.

I hid myself in the woods at a safe distance from the fighting.

Dia’s father was a count, and as such, his manor was so large, it was better described as a castle. The fortified building sat on the outskirts of town, guarded by a large rampart.

Making use of that barrier, the vassals of Count Viekone had somehow managed to successfully keep the army of the enemy noble faction at bay.

The miraculous defense was unlikely to last much longer, however. The opposing force outnumbered the vassals far more than I’d expected.

Even with the advantage of the rampart, the defending group was made up of only two hundred soldiers, while the attacking force boasted fifteen hundred. Mages could make up for a deficit in numbers, but no one stood a chance when they were outnumbered that badly.

Thus far, the noble faction’s army had been kept from entering the castle, but only just barely. The estate was likely to fall at any moment.

Wait, that doesn’t make any sense. How have they been able to last this long? I thought.

Using my Tuatha Dé eyes, I could see that the invaders boasted far more mages. People with mana shouldn’t have had any trouble just jumping over the rampart.

There was something else that seemed odd to me, too. The noble faction seemed very focused on a particular window of the castle.

“Ah, that explains it,” I said, finally catching on. Dia was the reason the castle hadn’t been taken yet.

I remained hidden in the darkness of the woods, being careful to avoid detection.

Before sneaking into the estate, I wanted to cause a disturbance that would weaken the attacking force’s assault. It didn’t look like the vassals were going to last much longer.

“I need to be strong… To save Dia, I have no choice but to kill those who are trying to steal her away.”

I wanted to kill as few people as possible, but in such a situation, there was no method to save Dia that didn’t involve murder. Her safety was my first priority, which meant my hands were going to get a little bloody.

I produced a gun using one of my spells.

Using a silencer was a waste of effort this time. With the gun’s level of firepower, which was high enough to kill battle-ready mages, there was no way their mana-enhanced ears wouldn’t catch the sound.

I channeled mana into my Tuatha Dé eyes.

In battle, it was said that a single mage was the equivalent fighting force of a hundred soldiers. To rephrase, this meant that killing a single mage was the same as taking out a hundred ordinary swordsmen.

My Tuatha Dé eyes allowed me to sense mana. Normally, you couldn’t sense an opponent’s mana unless you were relatively close to them, which made picking out mages difficult.

Thankfully, I was more than able to tell who among the invading force could use magic.

I drew a deep breath, and as I released it, I used fire magic to create an explosion within the iron gun. A tungsten bullet shot from the barrel and cut a large hole through the chest of a mage who’d been on the front lines.

That’s one.

I loaded another bullet and another body hit the ground.

One after another, they began to drop as I killed them efficiently and without emotion.

At the death of the fourth mage, the army took on a noticeably different formation.

Anyone who could use magic positioned themselves behind the ordinary soldiers for protection. They’d also clearly identified the direction my projectiles were coming from by way of the sound of the gun and which mages had been killed. Soldiers were dispatched in my direction, and the archers loosed a volley of arrows.

With no small urgency, I left that spot and, taking a large detour, began to move toward the opposite side of the battlefield.

“Just as I thought, they already know about the guns,” I muttered.

The army’s response had been too quick. Had they never encountered firearms before, they would’ve been far more confused. The explanation was simple enough: Dia had already been using Gun Strike. Perhaps that was the reason the vassals had been able to hold the estate against the noble faction for three days.

Dia could reliably hit a target from a distance of up to three hundred meters. She’d been able to prevent anyone getting over the rampart from her spot at the castle window by using Gun Strike, as the spell had enough force to kill a mage in a single shot.

It had reduced the enemy numbers, of course, but her shots had also caused the attacking soldiers to shrink away in fear of being the next one to take a bullet.

Almost all mages were of proper nobility or came from a branch family. Such social standing and battle prowess meant the noble faction couldn’t afford to keep throwing away the lives of their mages by having them try to scale the rampart.

While it was true that the mages might’ve been able to use magic to get multiple ordinary soldiers over the rampart at the cost of a few deaths, Dia sniping with Gun Strike kept that from being a viable strategy.

So long as the mages from the noble faction stayed away from the front lines, the Viekone mages would be able to handle the enemy soldiers who didn’t have mana.

Using wind magic, I picked up sound from the battlefield.

The noble faction soldiers were yelling about how there was someone other than Count Viekone’s daughter who was using the strange iron stone magic.

The enemy’s response was visibly too late.

Normally, four people being killed among so many soldiers wouldn’t have been a problem. The reason it had created such an uproar was because four mages had been singled out.

Now was the time to take advantage.

Stealthily, I made it to the other side of the battlefield, and while hiding in the woods, I produced a bow and some arrows made out of metal.

The arrows each had a special attachment on the end containing a jewel filled with red light.

“I didn’t want to play this card yet, but… I don’t have much choice.”

The jewels were actually Fahr Stones. Each stone was filled with mana to the point where it would very nearly explode.

Fahr Stones had the ability to store mana and were typically used to measure a person’s mana capacity.

But if you filled one past its limits and then broke it, the entrapped mana would explode outward.

Years ago, I almost destroyed the Tuatha Dé estate with one of those stones.

After much testing, I’d discovered that filling the stones with 70 percent fire mana, 20 percent wind mana, and 10 percent earth mana resulted in the highest destructive force.

I poured more mana into a Fahr Stone to push it beyond its capacity. The stone made a high-pitched noise as cracks began to form on the little sphere’s surface.

I drew an arrow—and released. Leaving a red trail of light, the arrow slipped through the trees and made impact in the middle of the noble faction’s army. Seven seconds later, light overflowed from the stone, and then it exploded.

Flames burst forth from the fire mana, which then exploded in combination with the wind produced by the wind mana. The earth mana became countless iron scraps, which then shot forth in all directions like bullets from the force of the explosion.

The blast itself was about two hundred meters wide, and the iron scraps caused additional damage for another few hundred beyond that.

Dozens of people were injured or killed from the explosion, burns, or the flurry of shrapnel.

I’d stored mana equivalent to the capacity of three hundred ordinary mages, and when the stones exploded, this was what happened.

My mana capacity was over a thousand times higher than the average mage’s, but instantaneous mana discharge was much harder to increase. Truthfully, mine sat only around seven or eight times higher than a regular mage’s.

Fahr Stones changed everything, however.

I fired three more Fahr Stones into crowds of enemy soldiers, and then after using Gun Strike to take out one more mage, I decided to move again. Remaining where I’d been hiding for much longer was likely to be dangerous.

I suppose you could say that even that type of large-radius attack was a form of assassination.

Assassination was defined as killing someone without showing yourself and without your target being aware of you. The mages I just killed with Gun Strike and the soldiers who died from the Fahr Stone explosions died without realizing who their attacker was.

An assassin did not devote themselves to assassination merely out of pride—it was simply because they were unable to rely on other means. That was not to say it didn’t have unique benefits. The use of covert methods helped me send the battlefield into a state of confusion and take out multiple soldiers without ever showing myself.

After four Fahr Stone explosions, the entire noble faction looked ready to flee.

Even the mages were getting increasingly scared because they didn’t know what they were fighting. It’d also grown quite clear that they were being specifically targeted.

“The Viekone soldiers are well-trained. It looks like they understand the opportunity they’ve been given,” I observed.

Count Viekone’s soldiers, who had been stuck on the defensive for the last three days, now opened the castle gate and charged.

Even after having lost a decent number of soldiers, the noble faction still retained a strong advantage in numbers. Their heavy state of panic, however, was what allowed Count Viekone’s people to take the offensive.

With their mages leading the way, the count’s soldiers began to rout the enemy.

Very quickly, the battlefield descended into a state of mass confusion, and there was no longer any need to fear the castle falling.

I hadn’t actually planned on changing the outcome of the battle all on my own. All I’d been trying to do with that series of attacks was create a diversion.

To avoid enemy attention falling on Dia and me, the battle had to be turned from a one-sided fight into a difficult struggle where the noble faction soldiers didn’t have the luxury of turning their focus anywhere else.

Employing the Fahr Stones had been for a second purpose as well. They were part of my plan for saving Dia.

With a ground battle unfolding, sneaking into the manor was sure to be quite easy now. It was time for a rescue mission.

Chapter 22 | The Assassin Runs to His Princess

I killed a large number of soldiers as I went along.

Not all of them had been bad people. Many had merely been ordered against their own will to wage war.

Such a thought pained me. I never would’ve cared about something like that in my previous life.

After the diversion had been created, I’d resolved to kill anyone who tried to steal Dia away. Rescuing her would’ve been impossible had I refused to do so. There was no time for regret. If I felt the need to repent, it was going to wait until after Dia had been secured.

“At least the worst-case scenario didn’t happen.”

The enemy force laying siege to the castle was larger than I expected, but I’d feared something even worse.

Using the Balor Company information network, I’d been gathering information to try to find the hero and seek out divine treasures. With some effort, I found intel on a man I believed to have the highest chance of becoming the hero, as well as the divine treasure he wielded.

It was a man known as Kran’s Hound, and the powerful magic spear he carried was called Gáe Bolg.

That man was known to be in Soigel.

His involvement was my speculated reason for the noble faction’s rebellion having been so successful. While there wasn’t much proof to that, I had hit upon some evidence.

If my theory was correct, there was a chance that a man with a divine treasure and a tremendous amount of strength could’ve been present on that battlefield.

Thankfully, my fears went unrealized. If Kran’s Hound had been there, he surely would’ve shown himself already.

“Now things get tricky,” I said. Sneaking into the castle had been easy because of all the confusion on the battlefield, but getting to Dia was going to be difficult.

The true nature of Dia’s assassination could never be publicized. Only a very small number of vassals knew that her death was to be faked.

Even with my help, House Viekone could not escape defeat. Many of the vassals were going to be taken prisoner, after which they’d be subjected to questioning and execution. The reason so few people knew about this plan was to prevent the secret from getting out.

For that reason, they needed someone who could sneak into this castle. A castle that the noble faction failed to infiltrate after three days of siege.

It would have been impossible for a normal person, but I could manage it using my skills as an assassin.

During a stealth operation, it was imperative that you did everything you could to avoid detection. This was much more difficult than it seemed, and it involved more than just staying out of sight or ensuring you made as little noise as possible.

No matter how covert you were, it was impossible to stop yourself from breathing, or to keep your body from emitting heat or any sort of scent. So long as someone was alive, they continued to leave traces of their presence.

True stealth required you to repress those giveaways to the best of your ability while using your skills to avoid detection by others. Success demanded that your awareness and perception had to be superior to anyone else’s.

To erase anything that would alert another to my location, I used one of my custom spells.

Wind began to flow around me.

The flood of information being carried to me by the wind would be enough to fry the brain of a normal person. However, I dealt with a level of information that would break a normal person on a daily basis. Plus, Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth had worked to increase the capabilities of my brain. As a result, I could bear any intel my magic brought me.

The spell I used had created a gust of wind. By altering the flow of that breeze, I could obtain three-dimensional visual information for places that were otherwise beyond my sight.

Coupled with this bit of magic, I also got a sense for my surroundings by picking up on certain sounds, listening for breathing and heartbeats, and using body heat to read the movements of those around me. These were all tricks I’d picked up in my previous life.

With so much information on my enemies at my disposal, it was almost like being able to see the future.

Using my many skills, I discerned the best route of infiltration. It was time to begin.

I sneaked through the mansion, weaving through gaps in those keeping watch.

There was only one place she could’ve been. The Fahr Stone explosions hadn’t only been to turn the tide of the battle—they’d also been a signal for Dia.

I was confident that if I used Fahr Stones, Dia would notice that I’d arrived, and she would stick her head out her window. As anticipated, she had done just that after the fourth explosion. That was how I knew what room of the large estate she was in.

Without giving away a hint of my presence, I arrived at Dia’s room and put my hand to the door.

It was locked, of course, but that was hardly a problem. Manipulating the metal mechanism by way of magic, I picked the lock.

The door opened to reveal Dia and a middle-aged man.

“Lugh! You really came for me!” Dia threw herself into my chest, with her beautiful silver hair trailing behind her.

It was only in that moment that I realized I’d finally surpassed her in height, a fact that made me a little happy.

I hugged Dia tightly, basking in her warmth, her smell, her softness.

Dia, my love. I’m so glad you’re safe.

Her face looked ghostly pale, however. With my Tuatha Dé eyes, I instantly understood the reason. She’d used almost all of her mana. Any more, and she would’ve collapsed from mana deficiency.

Dia had probably been giving everything she had to protect her vassals, even if she knew saving them all was impossible.

“I promised, didn’t I? That I would come running when you wanted to see me,” I said.

“…You remembered that promise, after all this time,” Dia replied.

I nodded. There was no way I was going to forget my promise to her.

The middle-aged man watched us with a mixed expression on his face.

There was nothing showy about his dress, but his dignified demeanor betrayed his status as a nobleman.

“I’ve always thought her to be a virtuous girl, but to think she would have her heart stolen by someone like you. It’s nice to finally meet you. I am Dimor Viekone, Dia’s father.”

“I am Lugh Tuatha Dé. I came here to fulfill your request.”

“While that was my request, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind… If only my vassals had listened when I told them to leave us and run. They said they couldn’t abandon me and Dia, and once they found out I was planning to surrender, they shut us away in here,” he explained softly. The count sounded proud, sad, and a variety of other emotions all at once.

One of the biggest reasons he wanted Dia spirited away to safety was surely because he didn’t want his subjects to fight. If Dia died, there would be no reason for his people to remain. They would be able to leave this losing battle and escape to live another day.

“What do you plan to do, Count Viekone?” I asked.

“I’ll be able to manage on my own… After watching all this fighting, I’ve built up a bit of an urge to get in on the action myself. I’ll cause as much destruction as I can in order to draw enemy attention away so others can escape. Once they’re free, I’ll make my own getaway. I plan to lay low for a while and make preparations to expel the traitors from these lands so that one day this country can be returned to its rightful ruler.”

As expected, given the man’s high-ranking position as a count, Dimor Viekone was a very strong mage who had a lifetime of training behind him. My dad even considered him a good friend.

If his plan involved his own survival, I had no doubts he was capable of pulling it off.

“Understood. Count Viekone, I’m going to start a fire in this room. We’re going to make this look like a suicide. I even brought a small corpse that could pass as Dia.”

“So that’s what that large bag you’ve got is for. There’s really a corpse in there…?”

My third reason for using the Fahr Stones had been to obtain a burned cadaver. I’d collected one of the bodies that’d been sent flying from the explosion and altered it a bit to pass for a double of Dia.

“That’s right. I’m going to put the ring that Dia always wears on this body, and once it’s fried to a crisp, no one will be able to tell that it’s not her.”

In my previous world, this kind of trick wouldn’t have worked because of dental records. This world didn’t possess such identification methods, however, so it wasn’t a concern.

“I’m jealous of Cian for having such an amazing heir,” Dimor admitted.

I pulled a container of oil out of my backpack. Starting with the bed, I doused the entire room.

“The last part requires a bit of performance on your part, Dia. I want you to open the window and address your vassals. These are the lines I’ve prepared for you. ‘I can’t stand anyone else getting hurt for my sake, and I will not become another’s property.’ Once you finish that, close the window. That’s when we’ll start the fire.”

“Hmm, that sounds like it could work. Those taking command on the front lines know that we’re faking your death. They should be able to take advantage of the situation and get the others to safety. It’s best for you, too, Dia.”

“Yes, Father.”

Not all of the vassals were going to make it out safely. Once they stopped fighting and tried to run, some were undoubtedly going to be captured, and any who did escape faced a rather uncertain future. Still, escape held more hope than continuing a losing battle.

Dia didn’t object to the plan because she understood that. The girl was determined to do what was best for her people. There was likely still some part of her that wanted to win, and she had to have known victory would’ve been possible if I went all out.

With the spell we’d designed to kill the hero, we could’ve wiped out every last one of the invaders. Dia must’ve been dying to ask me to use it on the noble faction’s forces. I knew she wouldn’t request such a thing, though, because Dia understood that winning this battle would solve nothing.

My plan was the one that would save the most lives, after all.

“Lugh, I’m ready when you are,” Dia declared. With determination in her eyes, she turned around and put her hand to the window. She opened it and confidently began her performance.

With this, my work was almost done. All that remained was to return to the Tuatha Dé domain with Dia. So long as there were no complications, we were going to get out just fine. No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than a chill ran down my spine.

I raised my mana as high as I could, grabbed Dia by the shoulders, and pulled her behind me.

This is bad.

As soon as Dia had opened her mouth to deliver her message, I was struck with an ominous sensation. It was an unexplainable, sixth sense kind of feeling. My experience as an assassin had given me a special sense for danger, and my alarm bells were ringing.

Driven by instinct, I grabbed Dia by the shoulders, pulled her behind my back, filled a Fahr Stone with mana to near bursting, and stuck my body out the window.

A good distance from the rampart, a large man turned toward Dia and hurled a long spear.

He had spiky red hair and the physique of a bodybuilder. The savage, bestial smile he wore suited him almost uncomfortably well. The air around this strange person was rich with mana so sinister, it seemed unnatural.

Is this guy human?! I thought, utterly incredulous.

By using my Tuatha Dé eyes, I could tell right away that the spear was loaded with an enormously high instantaneous mana discharge that far exceeded anything I was capable of.

I drew an arrow with a Fahr Stone that had been filled to the brim with mana and fired.

The spear transfigured as it traveled through the air, increasing in speed as the tip divided into multiple points. Such swiftness far outstripped the speed my tungsten bullets traveled at via Gun Strike. Without my Tuatha Dé eyes, I don’t think I’d ever have been able to spot the incoming projectile.

The force of the spear gouged the earth as it sailed through the air. Soldiers of the noble faction and Viekone vassals alike were indiscriminately torn to shreds. Numerous invisible blades formed around the spear, causing additional damage.

This was more than some polearm—it was a weapon of mass destruction.

The red-haired man’s spear and my Fahr Stone collided.

I’d used a special sort of Fahr Stone that’d been made to focus its blast forward when it detonated.

The spear, now traveling at supersonic speed, collided with the Fahr Stone, releasing an explosion born of a force equivalent to the mana of three hundred mages. The iron scraps formed by my earth mana went flying in all directions.

Undaunted, the man’s spear slipped through the blast, reduced the rampart to rubble, and pierced halfway through the wall of the castle.

Had it not been for my counterattacks slowing it down, that attack would have reduced the entire estate to rubble, and we would’ve been in dire straits.

The spear began to rattle, then pulled itself out of the castle wall and returned to its owner.

… So this is the power of a divine treasure.

I’d been gathering information on such objects and had recently started the preparations on finally purchasing one, but this was the first I’d ever seen in person.

The man and I locked eyes. He was about six hundred and forty meters away, a distance technically within Gun Strike’s range, but hitting a target that far with any sort of reliable accuracy was impossible for me.

Such was not the case for the red-haired man.

Perhaps that could’ve been chalked up to the divine treasure, but that wasn’t all. His skill and impossibly large instantaneous mana discharge were what had made the attack possible.

I entertained the thought that it would be nice if it turned out that the man’s only abnormal capability was his instantaneous mana discharge, but I knew that was wishful thinking.

It wouldn’t have changed my course of action anyway. I needed to retaliate—and soon.

Chanting a spell, I created a cannon. Against an opponent of such strength, it was clear a gun wasn’t going to cut it.

The weapon I created was a 120 mm cannon with rifling carved on the inside.

The barrel of such a weapon was very thick, and the bullets were equally large—each one was about the size of a milk bottle.

Such a dense barrel enabled it to withstand more intense explosions. I trusted this one could even take an explosion born of my full strength.

“Both of you, cover your ears and open your mouths! Cannon Strike !”

This was the fourth deadliest spell in my magic arsenal.

An extremely hard and heavy bullet shot toward the man. It spiraled rapidly from the rifling.

Gun Strike couldn’t compare to the strength of Cannon Strike. If the former was at the power of a rifle, then the latter held the force of a tank cannon. The firepower needed to push out a tungsten bullet of that size could be achieved only with a full-strength explosion.

People commonly had this the other way around, but large cannons were actually more accurate than rifles. The faster speed of the bullet meant it took less time to reach its destination, reducing the effect gravity had on it. Furthermore, the larger kinetic energy and mass of the cannon’s ammunition reduced the effect of other factors like wind. It was because of such factors that the attack held greater accuracy than a smaller round.

Gun Strike was effective only from about four hundred meters away, but with Cannon Strike, I could reliably hit a target from a distance of up to a kilometer.

The only hitch was that such a weapon was a little too abrasive for assassination.

Bullets fired by Cannon Strike had an initial velocity of 1,650 meters per second, and they reached Mach 4.8.

The bullet reached its destination in just 0.4 seconds, where it landed over six hundred and sixty meters away with a thunderous roar that kicked up a giant cloud of dirt.

While the cannon’s spike and anchor had been fastened to the floor, the force of the explosion had torn cracks in the walls and shattered all nearby windows.

Dia and Count Viekone stared with their mouths agape.

“Whooooooaaaaaa, it’s been a while since I’ve seen your Cannon Strike! There’s no way there’s even a trace of that guy left,” Dia exclaimed.

“What in the world was that?” asked her father.

“An assassination trick of mine. I use it to kill long-distance targets,” I answered.

“That’s not like any assassination technique I’ve ever heard of…”

While I’d hoped it had indeed been enough to kill the red-haired man, it didn’t take long to get my answer.

When the dust settled, the man was still standing and looking mostly none the worse for wear. Blood was running down his face from a spot on his forehead, but the same savage grin was still plain on his face.

It was enough to make me want to laugh. If only I’d missed. At least there still would’ve been some hope then.

This man had survived a direct hit from Cannon Strike, an attack with strength that rivaled a tank cannon.

“THAT HUUURTS! This is the first time I’ve ever felt pain. Not bad!!!” He was yelling so loudly, I could hear his every word even from so far away. His tone was both menacing and joyful.

Dia was trembling in fear.

The man’s already enormous muscles began to swell until they burst through his clothes, and the horns of a demon sprouted from his head.

I was certain I recognized those visual cues to be part of Berserk, an S-Rank skill.

Triggered by rage, Berserk increased your physical strength and mana. An aura of rage also further enhanced your attack and defense. It could activate only under a certain condition, but it made up for that by far surpassing the destructive force of other S-Rank skills.

Another Cannon Strike wouldn’t so much as scratch that guy now.

“Lugh, grab Dia and run. With him here, we no longer have time to fake Dia’s death. That man ended the civil war. The royal family surrendered because no one could stop him. You’re looking at one who has the strength to end wars by himself. I hadn’t expected him to show up so soon,” said Count Viekone.

If it was true that the man ended battles by himself, it still made him inferior to House Tuatha Dé. We ended such conflicts before they could even begin.

Still grinning from ear to ear, the man continued to shout in our direction.

“I came all the way here ’cause I heard some girl was using some troublesome magic, but holy shit, I did not expect to find something this amazing. Hey, you! I could kill every person here, or we could end this with a duel, like knights! If you win, I’ll have the entire army withdraw and never touch the Viekone domain again! Don’t you even think about running. If you pull something like that, I may not be able to restrain myself! I’ve finally found an opponent who can give me a real fight!”

This kind of person was easy enough to understand. He’d been dispatched by the noble faction because they were getting annoyed that the Viekone domain had managed to hold out for more than three days. He then got bored because he was too strong and felt like this fight was beneath him. The ecstatic look on his face was because the red-haired man had finally found someone who could pose a threat.

His was a spirit that had long yearned for a proper duel. To such a person, finding a worthy opponent must have been akin to a child opening presents on Christmas.

I believed that arrogance could be used to catch him off guard, however. This man thought himself invincible, but I’d discovered a fatal weak point.

“Count Viekone, Dia, his mind is set on me. His attributes are significantly higher than mine, so running isn’t an option. I have to accept his challenge.”

“Lugh, please don’t… You can win, though, right?” Dia asked, sounding helpless.

I slowly shook my head.

“There is a one hundred percent chance I’ll lose. If Cannon Strike couldn’t kill him, then I have no hope of beating him one-on-one. I wouldn’t last ten seconds.”

I produced a two-handed tungsten spear. The metal’s natural weight made the weapon weigh more than a hundred kilograms. After I’d created the object, I added two spells to it.

“If that’s the case, then why are you so calm?! If you lose, you’ll die, you know?! This is a stupid idea. I’ll fight with you.”

“I only said I wouldn’t win in a duel… I’m going to announce that I accept his challenge, but I don’t plan on actually meeting him on even ground. That’s why I’m doing this with a spear.”

I hurled the weapon out the window.

Tears began to well in Dia’s eyes.

She probably thought I’d lost it after seeing me throw the weapon I’d just made straight out a broken window. The action was not without a good reason, however.

“Dia, I’m not a soldier or a knight, and I’m certainly not the hero. I’m an assassin. I don’t agree to fair fights. Assassination is the only thing I can do, and that’s precisely the plan here,” I explained, flashing a smile to comfort her.

There was more than one way to go about assassination. Even against such an overwhelmingly powerful opponent, I still had a viable option. My preparations were nearly complete.

“Count Viekone, please follow me. If he wants to decide this battle based on a knight’s duel, we’re going to need you present,” I said.

Surprisingly, in this world, it wasn’t all that rare to entrust the outcome of a war to a single knight.

In a conflict where both sides held a similar amount of military strength, a proper war was liable to drag on and lead to devastation on both sides. To prevent that, both sides would occasionally pick their strongest knight to decide the outcome of such conflicts through a duel.

Truthfully, I’d never expected such a thing to happen during my rescue of Dia. To think that a knight’s duel would be how my operation ended… My plan had truly gone off the rails. My line of work demanded expecting the unexpected, however. Improvisation was a very necessary component of assassination.

Saving Dia was all that mattered. What methods I employed to that end didn’t matter.

“Understood. Let us go. I apologize for dragging you into this, Lugh… I could use the last of my strength to give you and Dia time to escape,” offered the count.

“That would be a bad idea. You wouldn’t last a minute against that man. It won’t be necessary anyway. As I said, I’m going to kill him.”

I couldn’t help but wonder how that red-haired guy had gotten so impossibly strong. If he turned out to be the hero, his death was going to make things very problematic in the future. Unfortunately, he had to die here if Dia and I were going to live at all, so it was hardly much of a choice anymore. I didn’t have the luxury to consider what was going to happen after that.

The assassination had to come first. Only afterward would I spare time to think about anything else.

As a professional killer, that was the best I could do.

Chapter 23 | The Assassin Releases the God Spear

Turning away from Dia’s troubled gaze, I walked out onto the courtyard with Count Viekone.

“All right. I accept your challenge,” I declared.

The man threw back his head and laughed with delight at my agreeing to the duel.

As I paced toward him, I counted down the remaining time.

Four hundred forty-three more seconds.

Both camps had stopped fighting, almost as if the hard-fought battle of the last few days had never even happened.

The frightful man’s exclamations alone had brought the conflict to an end. He truly was a monster.

I walked a few hundred meters from the castle to a level plain with a nice view of the land around us, then turned to face my enemy. There he stood, with his spiky red hair and two-handed spear so long, it dwarfed its wielder.

His already muscular body had swollen to abnormal proportions thanks to the S-Rank skill Berserk. A faint glow could be seen in the man’s eyes, and horns were protruding from his head. Faced with such a sight, anyone would’ve thought him a demon. I could almost see the flames of his fighting spirit bursting forth from around his body.

Something was off, though. Berserk was supposed to grant overwhelming strength in exchange for losing the ability to reason. While my opponent was clearly hungry for a fight, it seemed he was still in possession of his mental faculties.

There was a skill that negated the side effects of Berserk, but I thought it impossible that someone could’ve been fortunate enough to have been awarded both. If the goddess had allowed him to choose his skills like she’d permitted me, it would’ve been feasible, but the odds seemed too low for such a powerful combination to have occurred naturally.

Two hundred twenty-one more seconds.

“Give me your name, kid,” the man demanded.

“Feri Marconi. My family are distant relatives of House Viekone.” There was no way I could give him my real name, so I offered a fake one instead.

“Feri. I won’t forget it. Thanks to you, I was able to taste my own blood for the first time.” At those words, the horned man wiped blood from his forehead and licked it.

The wound itself had already healed. Even as a mage, such an injury should not have closed after only a few minutes.

His robust body had been enhanced by Berserk, affording him unbreakable defense, but some other skill allowed him to retain his intelligence. Both mind and strength were in top form. I couldn’t think of a more dangerous foe to face. As if that hadn’t been bad enough, the man also appeared able to recover from superficial damage almost immediately.

It almost made me want to call him a cheat.

“I’m glad to hear it. Since we’re about to duel, it’s only proper to give your name in return. A knight’s honor demands such,” I replied.

Truthfully, I couldn’t care less what the man’s name was, but if he wanted to play knights, I was more than happy to go along with it. The more distracted he was, the easier it would be to kill him.

“Ah, sorry about that. I’m Setanta Macness. This is good. This is what it’s like to show respect to your opponent before a battle.”

The Macness family was known to have connections to the Soigelian royal family. So why had Setanta allied himself with the revolting noble faction?

Setanta was also the one known as Kran’s Hound, the very same person I’d previously reasoned had the highest chance of being the hero. Seeing how he’d used his spear to such deadly effect had done little to lessen that suspicion.

“Setanta, I have something I want to confirm. If I win this duel, will the army actually withdraw?” I asked.

“That’s what I said, didn’t I? We’ll pull out, and I’ll never touch this domain again. If anyone else tries to interfere with this land, I’ll kill them myself. Wanna make it a geas?” Setanta inquired, shrugging. Evidently, he was offended that I hadn’t taken him at his word.

A geas was an oath offered to the gods.

“I believe you. But if I win, I’m going to kill you. I don’t see how you’ll be able to keep your promise.” My bold words were meant as a provocation.

“You’ve got a big mouth, kid… You’re the first person dumb enough to talk to me that way. Hey, Dilmura! If I die, make sure to uphold my oath in my place! Satisfied now?”

“Thank you. One more question. What will happen if I lose?”

“If I win, then we’ll take Dia and kill everyone here. I don’t feel great about it, but that’s what’s gonna happen. Gets you even more fired up, though, huh?”

“Yeah, you’re right. There’s no way I can lose now.”

“Then let’s go ahead and get this started. I can’t wait any longer. I’ve been waiting my entire life for someone strong enough to give me a real fight.”

To be honest, speaking with Setanta wasn’t easy. I couldn’t relate to his feelings at all.

“Before we begin in earnest, can we get the soldiers around us to move back? I’m afraid we won’t be able to avoid harming them during our fight. If I win, the war will be over. There’s no need for any more unnecessary death,” I said.

“You’re such a nice boy. Did your parents teach you those manners?”

“That’s right. I’m the product of very strict discipline.”

Both camps heeded the command and gave us a wide berth.

While I’d decided to kill anyone who obstructed my path to rescuing Dia, I still didn’t want any unnecessary bloodshed. Plus, this was a perfect excuse to stall for time and get Setanta into position.

Little by little, I moved our starting position away from the estate, telling him that it would be easier for us to fight out in the open without any obstructions.

Setanta fell for it, and I guided him precisely to where I wanted him.

I produced four titanium-alloy knives. I placed two of them at my hips and gripped the other two in my hands.

Forty-four more seconds.

“Sorry, could you give me a second to prepare?”

“Go ahead. This won’t be any fun if you’re not at your full strength. So you’re a dual-wielder? Those knives are puny. How do you think you’re gonna stop my spear with those?”

“You’ll see once we start fighting. Actually, you probably won’t.”

The little blades were nothing more than a distraction. I was using them to attract Setanta’s attention to ensure he didn’t notice my real attack.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that I’m going to end this duel without needing to deal with your spear.”

Nineteen more seconds.

“That mouth of yours is starting to get on my nerves. I can’t figure you out, and that’s only making me more excited to kill you. What should our starting signal be?”

“How about we start when this coin hits the ground?”

“Works for me.”

I flicked a coin with my finger, and it spun through the air.

Setanta focused on the coin. In a real one-on-one bout, nothing was more important than the first strike. That’s why he was watching the coin so intently, to make sure he didn’t miss the moment it hit the ground.

The man was so focused, he’d lost sight of everything else around him.

Eight more seconds.

He had no idea that he was about to be assassinated. If I had to pin down the exact meaning of that word, I’d define it as killing someone via an unexpected method without a target being aware it was happening.

Even while I stood right in front of Setanta, I had devised a way to kill him that fit that definition.

“I am not a knight. Honor and respect have no place in my line of work. Die.”

The count hit zero.

The moment the coin hit the ground, Setanta’s fighting spirit and mana surged, but the man suddenly disappeared.

It wasn’t that he’d suddenly moved at such a high speed that he’d appeared invisible, although that’s what he’d tried to do. Unfortunately for him, I’d killed him before he ever got the chance. My own attack had been so quick that not even my Tuatha Dé eyes had been able to keep up.

A hole that went down for miles had been gouged into the earth. It fissured and began to spread as the ground shook.

I directed all of my mana to my legs and leaped backward. I then shifted it toward defending myself.

So powerful was the spell I’d used to kill Setanta that I risked ending my own life with the aftershock. I focused everything I had on defending myself.

That’s when the ground exploded.

Shock waves accompanied by a tsunami of sediment radiated out from the spot where Setanta had been standing.

I was swallowed up immediately. Totally buried by dirt, I was helplessly thrown around in all directions as the blast wave carried me away.

A conjured barrier of wind maintained my supply of oxygen. I fought desperately to maintain my mana output and protect myself. Letting up for a moment would’ve spelled my death.

I had no idea how far the tsunami carried me, but the shaking finally stopped, and I came to a stop.

Both of my legs had broken, the result of jumping back with more force than my body could handle. I also had a few cracked ribs, and my left arm had snapped. My legs and ribs had thankfully broken rather cleanly, so I used mana to connect them back together. My left arm, however, had a compound fracture. If I tried to heal it as it was, the risk was high that it would connect in an unnatural way. I decided to hold out for medical treatment.

Using earth magic, I pushed myself free from the mountain of dirt and rock.

I was shocked to see where I’d ended up. The force of my attack had carried me from the site of the duel all the way back to the demolished rampart.

“That was Gungnir, the formula I developed to use against the hero. That was the magic that killed you, Setanta.”

What remained after my assassination was shocking.

A yawning abyss at least a few kilometers deep had been gouged into the earth where Setanta had been standing. Its bottom was too far down to see. Dirt from the explosion had been kicked up so high, it was raining down on the castle roof.

This was only the aftermath. Setanta had taken a direct hit. There was no way he’d survived, and I sensed no sign of him.

Many soldiers in the surrounding area were buried in dirt. The Viekone soldiers were assisting those who needed help, while the noble faction soldiers were running away with looks of confused terror.

Good thing I had them all stay back , I thought.

Had anyone else been within two hundred meters of my attack, they would’ve almost certainly perished.

That was Gungnir—the spell I’d designed to assassinate the hero.

When I’d tossed the tungsten spear out the window, the assassination had already been 80 percent complete.

There was an earth spell that doubled the target’s gravity.

I studied the formula for that spell and discovered that you could adjust the multiplier both positively and negatively.

I multiplied the tungsten’s gravity by -2, which caused the spear to accelerate upward at 19.8 meters per second squared.

The amount of time my mana allowed me to maintain that reverse gravity spell was three minutes. The spear accelerated upward for that entire time, and even once its gravity returned to normal, its kinetic energy continued to carry it upward until it came to a stop at 1,023.5 kilometers aboveground.

Naturally, what came up had to come back down.

With a spear falling from 1,023.5 kilometers, it would reach a speed of 4,480 meters per second.

The spear weighed one hundred kilograms and fell at a velocity of Mach 14, which created a force of 3.6 × 109 joules.

Considering a tank cannon fired with kinetic energy equal to 9 × 106 joules, the spear fell with four hundred times the kinetic energy of a tank cannon. The heavier the object, the more force with which it would fall, but the problem was that a greater mass depleted my mana quicker when inverting its gravity. This significantly shortened the length of time I could maintain the spell.

At present, that was the limit of my power.

My inspiration for this attack was a weapon that had been developed back in a country from my former world known as America. Commonly, they were called “rods from God.”

Rods from God was an idea for a weapon that would drop metal rods from satellites orbiting in space. Upon impact, the rods would rival the power of nuclear weapons.

There were problems with actually realizing this weapon, though. The cost of placing objects of that mass in space was prohibitive, and even if you did get the projectiles into space, keeping them from burning up in the atmosphere before they reached the ground was an issue as well.

The magic of this world made getting around such complications rather simple.

I lifted my spear a thousand kilometers in the air merely by reversing its gravity, and a convenient spell called Windbreak dealt with the friction of entering the atmosphere by repelling air.

Gungnir was the most power I could manage, which made it the ace up my sleeve.

“I already knew this, but putting its power aside, there are a lot of drawbacks.”

The biggest problem was how long it took to prepare. A total of ten minutes was needed for the spear to make its trip up and then back down. Another problem was the difficulty of aiming the shot.

Normal mages would be killed simply by being caught up in the explosion of the impact. That meant the death zone extended as far as two hundred meters out, so long as the target was a normal person. I doubted the hero was likely to die unless he took the hit head-on.

Even without the concern of air friction because of my wind magic, I still had to account for the rotation of the planet, among many other calculations. Even if I got all of the calculations right, if the spear was off by even the tiniest degree, it would probably fail to kill the hero.

Thankfully, I’d been able to practice the attack a few times on an uninhabited island. If I hadn’t, I probably would’ve missed. I really owed Maha for having found a spot where I could practice.

This time the spear had landed exactly where I’d calculated it would, but I still had adjustments I could make to the formula.

“For the time being, I need to check for his corpse.”

Using wind magic, I scanned the area for Setanta. While it was likely he was dead, I couldn’t be sure until I saw the body myself. At Mach 14, Gungnir had been too fast, even for my Tuatha Dé eyes, to perceive.

I searched every inch of the surrounding area, but I found no sign of the red-haired man. I even tried searching underground with earth mana, but that turned up nothing as well.

In addition to not finding any trace of a body, something else was curiously absent—Gáe Bolg, Setanta’s divine treasure. Even after an impact that big, it shouldn’t have disappeared.

If the weapon wasn’t there, did that mean that Setanta had somehow escaped with it?

“That’s impossible,” I said to myself. If he’d been able to grab the spear and escape, he doubtlessly would’ve tried to continue the duel.

Dia came running toward me.

The noble faction army had already pulled out. Actually, it would’ve been more accurate to say they fled to safety. I doubt they wanted to fight a monster capable of both causing so much destruction and killing Kran’s Hound.

“Lugh! Thank goodness you’re safe,” Dia cried.

I caught her as she flung herself at me.

It seemed like Dia had a hugging habit. She kissed me on the cheek, then blushed deep red and turned away.

Overcome with love for her, I turned her face toward mine, and this time I kissed her on the lips. She accepted the motion, although she was forced to balance on the tips of her toes in order to reach me, an effort which only made her more adorable.

It was really only a peck; our lips barely touched. But that did not diminish the joy I felt from the act.

“Well, that was a surprise… But…not an unpleasant one.”

Dia’s every mannerism was cute.

My elation was short-lived as I realized the successful assassination had created a new problem. Since the entire noble faction army had run away, the plan to fake Dia’s death wouldn’t work anymore.

This was my first ever failed assassination.

Things certainly could’ve turned out worse, though. While I prided myself on my flawless success rate as an assassin, I cared far more for Dia’s safety.

Such a way of thinking would’ve been impossible for my former self.

Epilogue | How Lugh Tuatha Dé Chooses to Live

A lot happened after the duel.

Despite further time devoted to searching for him, neither Setanta nor his spear ever turned up.

Even though the noble faction had withdrawn and promised to uphold Setanta’s oath, Count Viekone decided the risk of the nobles seeking revenge was too high. As such, he distributed his wealth among his surviving vassals and ordered them to leave the domain.

Count Viekone said he’d rely on one of his many personal connections to hide, build up strength, and then one day return to have his revenge.

Dia was going to live in the Tuatha Dé domain, beginning life as a different person.

Dad got to work creating a foolproof new identity for her, and Count Viekone had said he had a way to trick everyone into thinking Dia was still in Soigel.

Perhaps it was selfish of me, but the idea of spending time with Dia every day was very welcome, and our spell-development research was sure to progress much more quickly now that we could see each other all the time.

Unfortunately, I’d revealed an ace in the hole I’d been hoping to save for the hero—and in front of a large crowd of people, too. I doubt anyone understood the theory or nature behind Gungnir, but I didn’t think it prudent to continue to trust it as a guaranteed win anymore.

I was going to need new magic—something even stronger than Gungnir. To that end, Dia’s cooperation was likely to be extremely necessary.

Carrying Dia in my arms, I made my way back home.

Running like this was more tiring than carrying her on my shoulders, and my left arm still hurt a little after receiving surgery and further self-healing. I still preferred to hold her in my arms, however. That way I could enjoy her warmth and her softness.

“Dia, are you okay with all this?” I asked.

“… I’m sad that things ended up the way they did, but thanks to you, we avoided serious tragedy. Thank you,” she replied softly.

In the end, House Viekone lost its land, wealth, and retainers. Even if it had come at a heavy price, the worst-case scenario had still been avoided.

“It may be hard for you until you get used to the Tuatha Dé lifestyle, but you’ll be fine if you hang in there.”

“There’s no need to worry about that. Remember, I once spent two weeks there. I love the Tuatha Dé domain. And you’ll be there, too.” Dia spoke as cheerfully as possible, likely so as not to cause me any more concern.

Dia is a tough girl , I thought.

The sun had already set. It was the perfect time for our escape across the border.

“Hey, Lugh. Why did you risk your life to come and save me? House Tuatha Dé probably had nothing to gain from it.”

“I did it for you. I promised I’d come running if you ever called for me.”

“… You did, didn’t you? Thank you, Lugh. I’ll have to do what I can to return the favor.”

“There’s no need for that. I made that promise to return a favor I owed to you in the first place. If you try to return it, we’ll be stuck in a never-ending loop.”

I’d made my promise to Dia after asking something unreasonable of her, saying I would do anything in return. After all these years, I’d finally paid her back.

“That’s true, but exchanging favors for the rest of our lives sounds kinda cool.”

“You’re not wrong.”

While the haze over my heart had not yet cleared, I did feel like a little light was starting to break through.

Somehow, we made it back to Tuatha Dé.

It truly was fortunate that I had the Rapid Recovery skill.

Dia had fallen asleep in my arms at some point during the trip. She must have been exhausted after pushing herself so hard during the battle.

My ears caught the sound of footsteps as soon as I returned to the Tuatha Dé estate.

Tarte approached, her eyes welling with tears as soon as she saw me. She clapped her hands together over her chest.

“Welcome home, my lord. You came back safely! I’m glad. Truly,” she said.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t slept this whole time?” I guessed.

“No, that’s…not true,” Tarte lied. Anyone could’ve seen she’d been up for the entirety of my absence.

To have not slept for this long after giving everything she had to help me preserve my stamina on the way to the Viekone domain was ridiculous. Unlike me, she didn’t have Rapid Recovery. Still, this was hardly the time to get angry and scold her.

“Thanks, Tarte. Your help was what enabled me to keep my focus until the very end.”

Gungnir was magic that pushed me to the very edge of my limit. The calculations were complicated, and the spells required fine precision. I couldn’t allow the slightest deviation when releasing the lance, and I needed to guide my target to the exact spot the spear was going to land. It all required an enormous amount of mental energy.

If my concentration had slipped for even a second, I would’ve failed. Tarte’s help had allowed me to take it easy during that first hour of travel to the Viekone domain. I was sure that extra energy was what had allowed me to triumph.

“Yes, my lord! It was worth it… This is Dia, I presume.”

Tarte had heard about Dia many times from me, but this was her first time seeing her in person. She looked her up and down with great interest.

“I’ll introduce you once she wakes up. It looks like she’s going to be living here,” I said.

“She’s so beautiful, like a doll. I’m so jealous,” Tarte said with a sigh.

Tarte was quite beautiful herself, so she really had no reason to be envious. Saying something like that would’ve been embarrassing, though, so I kept the thought to myself.

I sensed someone else enter the room, and I looked over to see Dad.

“I see you’ve completed your mission. Great job,” he praised.

“I’ll give a detailed report later, but unfortunately, this was my first ever failed assassination.”

I was supposed to get Dia out of Viekone and take her here after faking her death, but all the enemy soldiers had fled after my duel with Setanta, so we’d been left with no witnesses for the staged suicide.

“If Dia is alive, I should think that is good enough. You didn’t make any mistakes that exposed your identity or where you are taking Dia, did you?” asked my dad.

“Definitely not.”

“Good. You should get some rest… You have my thanks for fulfilling a request that I, your worthless father, could not.” My dad paused for a minute before continuing. “Moving on… I have an urgent message to deliver to you. After you left, we received word that the hero has appeared. He’s a young man born here in Alvan. The appearance of the hero means that monsters will be on the rise, and demons will soon be reborn. I want you to keep this in mind, Lugh.”

If there was word of such a person in Alvan, that meant Setanta couldn’t have been the hero. It was good news, but it also made me uneasy. This turn of events raised the question of how Setanta had gotten so powerful.

It meant that something existed in this world that allowed a normal person to achieve incredible power. I would have to launch a thorough investigation into Setanta’s history in the coming days.

“Yes, I’ll be careful. What are we going to do about Dia?” I asked.

“I already have her identity prepared in the family register. She will live in Tuatha Dé. Dia’s silver hair really stands out. The only people with silver hair in this country are you and Esri. That said, it would be really regrettable to have her dye it…so I’ll use the little-sister identity I already have in the family register. I had prepared this for a different purpose, but we may as well use it now. It wouldn’t be unnatural for your little sister to have silver hair.”

I didn’t get the meaning of making Dia my little sister. I understood that it’d make her silver hair less conspicuous, of course, but…

“Why little sister and not big sister?!”

“Have you forgotten that I prepared a little sister for you on the family register? It was for next month.”

“Ah.”

I had indeed forgotten. It would’ve been a problem if Dia assumed an identity that wasn’t a younger sibling.

“Dia is short, her face is still childlike, and, hmm… Yeah, little sister will be just fine.”

I made a point to remember that Dad said that after looking at Dia’s chest.

She certainly did look like Mom.

“Understood. I’ll inform Dia when she wakes up.”

I expected her to be angry about being made out to be younger than me, but I trusted she’d come around once I explained things.

“Yes, please… One last thing. Word is the hero is the same age as you. If that’s the case, you’ll actually be meeting him at a certain place before very long,” my dad said.

My heart began to pound in my chest.

There was a law that had been decided on in this country five years ago. As a result of that rule, nobles became unable to marry at the previously eligible age of fourteen years old. Instead, getting engaged at fourteen and getting married at sixteen became the norm.

If the hero was my age, and he followed that practice, we were definitely liable to cross paths soon.

“I’ll do my best not to offend him.”

“The hero will probably search for a companion while there. We have an obligation to this country. I don’t want to invite any unnecessary trouble, but… If necessary, I wouldn’t mind if that became your top priority. I doubt even the royal family would complain.”

I was finally going to be able to lay eyes on the target I’d been assigned to kill.

I’d have to keep a careful watch on him. The hero wasn’t to die until after he’d killed the Demon King. Until that time, I was going to focus on studying his every ability and work to uncover as many potential weaknesses as possible.

Concurrently, I also had a plan to search for a way of saving the world without killing the hero. Unlike my previous self, I wanted to avoid any unnecessary deaths.

There was also the matter of Dia, Tarte, Maha, and everyone else I’d come to know and love. If I had no choice but to kill the hero to save the world and everyone in it… I trusted myself not to hesitate when the time came.

If I was to assassinate the hero, it was only going to be because I had decided to do it of my own free will. That was how Lugh Tuatha Dé had chosen to live.

Contents

Cover

Insert

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue | The Assassin Gains a New Family Member

Chapter 1 | The Assassin Goes Shopping

Chapter 2 | The Assassin Obtains a Divine Treasure

Chapter 3 | The Assassin Arrives at the Royal Knights Academy

Chapter 4 | The Assassin Meets the Hero

Chapter 5 | The Assassin Finishes His Exam

Chapter 6 | The Assassin Receives a Secret Mission

Chapter 7 | The Assassin and the Hero Become Friends

Chapter 8 | The Assassin Goes to Class

Chapter 9 | The Assassin and the Hero Face Off

Chapter 10 | The Assassin Gains the Hero’s Confidence

Chapter 11 | The Assassin Tests a Killing Move

Chapter 12 | The Assassin Assassinates an Assassin

Chapter 13 | The Assassin Performs Surgery

Interlude | The Assassin Makes the Hero a Promise

Chapter 14 | The Assassin Receives Military Duty

Chapter 15 | The Assassin Shares Some Mana

Chapter 16 | The Assassin Fights Orcs

Chapter 17 | The Assassin Fails

Chapter 18 | The Assassin Apologizes

Chapter 19 | The Assassin Searches

Chapter 20 | The Assassin Decides to Help

Chapter 21 | The Assassin Comes to the Rescue

Chapter 22 | The Assassin Shows His Real Power

Chapter 23 | The Assassin Gains the Hero’s Trust

Epilogue | The Assassin Leaves the Academy

Afterword

Yen Newsletter

Prologue | The Assassin Gains a New Family Member

I woke up when morning arrived. I felt something warm on my left arm and turned to face it.

“No, my lord, shtoooop iiit…”

Tarte was hugging my arm and talking in her sleep.

Tarte was fourteen years old, had soft blond hair, and possessed a developed figure for her age. When she was younger, she had been abandoned by her family and left for dead in the mountains. The resulting trauma gave her occasional anxiety attacks. When it became too much for her to bear, I allowed her to sleep with me.

It’s well known that the warmth of another person can give you a sense of ease.

“What in the world is she dreaming about?”

Looking at Tarte’s happy sleeping face put me in a good mood.

Lately, we’d been sharing the same bed more often. I was worried that Tarte wasn’t doing well mentally, but then I realized she was just making excuses to spend more time with me. I should’ve chided her, but I didn’t see much harm in it.

She’s doing her very best for me, and she worked exceptionally hard yesterday. I can let her have this.

“Tarte, wake up.”

I pushed aside the temptation to watch her sleeping face and shook her shoulders. If she didn’t awaken soon, she’d be late preparing breakfast.

Tarte’s eyes lazily flitted open. She released my left arm and sat up.

“My lord, I love you shooo muuuch…,” she said in a slurred voice as she leaned over to hug me.

I couldn’t help but recognize her well-developed body through her thin nightgown. She nuzzled her cheeks into my chest as I attempted to move away.

“I know you love me, but would you mind letting go?”

“Come ooooon, it’sh fine. What’sh thish compared to what we did earlier…?”

“I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

“It was like a dream, you— Owww!”

I pinched Tarte’s cheek, and her eyes teared up.

“Tarte, it’s time to wake up!”

“Wh-what—huh? W-was that just a dream?”

“Good morning, Tarte.”

“Ah, uhhhhhh, my lord, that was, um… Eeeek!”

Tarte flushed deep red, pulled away, and rolled over until she fell out of bed.

Evidently, Tarte thought she’d done something quite embarrassing.

“Um, that wasn’t what it looked like. I was just…”

“Don’t worry about it. You were still half-asleep. But forget about that—look at the time.”

“…Ah, I need to hurry!”

Tarte’s face went from crimson to pale. She opened my closet and took out her servant clothes. I turned my back to her, and she began to change. Tarte had started storing some of her clothes in my closet after we began using the same bed.

“O-okay, I’ll go make breakfast! I’ll apologize for what I did this morning later, my lord!” Rotating back around, I saw that Tarte was now dressed in her maid outfit. After bowing, she beat a hasty retreat.

“This is the first time Tarte has had that much trouble getting up.”

Usually, she was a morning person. Perhaps all the excitement the other day had left her exhausted. She’d really pushed herself to help me on my quest to save Dia. During my absence, she’d refused to sleep.

I wasn’t tired, but that wasn’t to say I didn’t experience my own sort of problem.

“Man, the reasoning and bodily instincts of a young man truly can turn you into a different creature altogether.”

I sighed. Being hugged by Tarte during the height of puberty while she was wearing a thin nightgown was poison. The sexual appetite of the fourteen-year-old was not to be underestimated.

My body had a habit of responding prominently, and I could feel that desire welling up inside me right now.

…I’m her teacher, and I’m like a father and an older brother to her. I need to be more careful.

I headed for the living room at the usual time. My parents and Dia were already at the table when I walked in.

“Good morning, Lugh. Look, I gave Dia my old clothes. Don’t they look good on her?”

“They look lovely. White suits you, Dia.”

Dia was wearing a thin, alabaster summer dress. It matched her white skin and silver hair excellently.

“Thanks, but I feel a little embarrassed wearing this. It’s been a while since I’ve worn something so girly.”

“Hmm-hmm-hmm, I knew my clothes would be a perfect fit for you, Dia. Tarte’s a little too short, but it’s her large chest that really makes her a difficult dress-up doll… Ahem. It’s too bad I can’t play with her, too.”

“Don’t you make clothes, Mother? You enjoy making revealing clothing, as I recall,” Dia remarked.

“Making clothes from scratch requires a lot of trial and error! You’re much easier. I can put you in any of my old outfits that I want!”

My mom liked Tarte and had recently been sewing different accoutrements for her.

“Hey, Lugh. Who is Tarte?” Dia asked with a stiff expression.

“She’s my retainer, apprentice, and assistant. She shows real talent and has a strong work ethic. When I came to save you, she did everything she could to help. Speak of the devil, here she is.”

Tarte walked in from the kitchen to set the table. She started by giving everyone their drinks. Today we had freshly blended apple juice.

“This is Tarte,” I announced.

“Ah, that’s right, you two haven’t met yet. Tarte, introduce yourself to Dia,” instructed my dad.

“O-okay. I am Lord Lugh’s adherent. My name is Tarte.”

“I’m Dia; nice to meet you. And thanks.”

“I-it was nothing. I only did what was expected of me as his retainer.”

“Hmm, you like Lugh, don’t you?”

“Huh? N-no, I really respect him, and I love him, but not in that way,” Tarte quickly stammered out, clearly flustered. Dia remained composed.

“You don’t have to hide it from me. Lugh is a nobleman, after all. Having a few mistresses is to be expected.” Dia, being a noble, understood that sort of thing well.

A single wife was a risky choice for an aristocrat. If that woman couldn’t produce an heir, the lineage would die out. Even if a child was born, there was no guarantee they would live to see adulthood. Among the gentry, having multiple wives and heirs was just common sense.

“Th-that’s not necessary. Being by my lord’s side is enough for me.”

“You must care deeply for him. Lugh is a lucky guy, being adored by such a cute girl,” Dia said.

“Not a day goes by that I’m not thankful for Tarte,” I admitted.

“Huh?! I-I’ll get the food. Excuse me!” Tarte blushed and ran back to the kitchen.

Dia’s brow furrowed as she watched the other girl leave. After a moment, she turned to face my dad.

“Cian and Lugh, thank you for lending House Viekone the power of House Tuatha Dé. I’m afraid I was brought here with naught but the clothes on my back, so this is all I can offer. I hope it will suffice.”

Dia extended a hand toward my dad. Sitting atop her palm was a ring fitted with a large gem.

…Dia talked the gift down, but the ring looked like it could’ve been a national treasure. Selling it surely would’ve earned you enough money that you, your children, and your grandchildren never would’ve had to work a day in your lives. That little thing was the epitome of priceless.

“We can’t accept this. It’s a memento from your mother, right? You don’t need to give us anything. Count Viekone has already done enough for me. Also, Lugh is the one who acted, not I. He says he was just fulfilling a promise he had made to you,” my dad replied.

“I understand. Perhaps you’ll accept it as a payment for my lessons, then?” Dia once again offered the invaluable band.

“What do you mean?” asked my dad.

“Please teach me how to be an assassin. I need the knowledge of House Tuatha Dé. I’m great at magic, but I know now that’s not enough. So please.”

All the recent trouble at Dia’s family estate had probably forced her to realize her own helplessness. As the daughter of a count, Dia did receive basic combat training. That wasn’t enough for her anymore, though. She wanted the skills and knowledge only the Tuatha Dé clan of assassins was privy to. Undoubtedly, she hoped to help her father. The man had been forced into hiding as he built up strength.

“The skills of the Tuatha Dé clan are usually only entrusted to direct descendants. I see no problem making something of an exception, however. You’re being made my daughter, after all. Let’s talk about this after breakfast. The soup our adorable retainer is making for us is going to go cold.”

As if on command, Tarte brought bowls into the room. She’d made fish soup, and its delicious smell wafted toward us as she set our dishes on the table.

“I second that,” I added. “I want to enjoy Tarte’s delicious cooking to the fullest.”

“Okay. We’ll save the matter for after our meal,” Dia agreed.

We planned to finish breakfast, and then my dad would talk with Dia about becoming my little sister. Once that was settled, we’d handle everything else.

Five years ago, in the Alvanian Kingdom, a new experiment had begun. It aimed to bring together young mages all across the country to foster friendship and competition. One of the reasons Dia was being made my little sister was to go with me to that place.

Chapter 1 | The Assassin Goes Shopping

Tarte finished setting the table and stationed herself behind me as she always did. I’m sure she wanted to eat with us, but that would’ve set a bad example for the other servants.

Our breakfast entrée was dried fish soup made of catches from a lake in our domain.

“Lugh, I’ve never seen this kind of fish. What’s it called?”

“It’s Runamass. It’s tasty, filling, and a common dish here in Tuatha Dé.”

“It smells so good,” Dia admired as she stared at the liquid and the large slices of meat.

“Let’s eat. Words cannot accurately portray a dish’s taste.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m excited to try it!”

Dia and I both sampled some of Tarte’s cooking.

It was exceptional, but that was to be expected of Tarte. The broth was filled with ample portions of fish and vegetables. In true Tuatha Dé style, she’d added a small amount of lemon juice to bring out the flavor. This dish was originally a specialty of Mom’s, and she’d taught it to Tarte.

In addition to the soup, we also enjoyed bread topped with goat butter.

It, too, was marvelous. The soy bread had been made with leftover sediment extracted from the soybeans used in Tuatha Dé to create emulsifiers, which were then sold to my Natural You cosmetics brand. Not only was a loaf tasty, but it was also good for you.

Since apples were in season, we drank their juice.

The day’s morning meal had been made entirely using ingredients from the Tuatha Dé domain, showing how great our food could be. I enjoyed the sumptuous dishes of the capital, but I fancied the modest cuisine of Tuatha Dé more.

“It’s delicious and simple. All the food here is,” Dia complimented.

“That’s the kind of domain Tuatha Dé is. That’s exactly why I like it,” I answered. “We live in harmony with the earth, and we’re a prosperous domain in the truest sense. There is no better example of that than our cuisine.”

As we neared the end of our meal, my dad spoke up, saying, “Now that we’ve all had our fill, let’s talk about the future. Continuing to live as Dia Viekone is going to be difficult.”

“Yeah, I understand that. I’m a fugitive, after all,” Dia remarked.

“For that reason, I have prepared a new name and identity in the family register for you. You will be Claudia Tuatha Dé, Lugh’s little sister.”

“What?! But I’m sixteen years old! It doesn’t make any sense for me to be Lugh’s little sister.”

“I know that you’re older, but it’s the only identity I have prepared on the family register. It wouldn’t be impossible for me to make a new one, but…identities made without proper preparation are easily exposed. I prepared the Claudia identity on the family register fourteen years ago. I doubt anyone would be able to discover it’s fake.”

That younger sibling character had been prepared as insurance in case a particular situation came to pass.

“But won’t people find it weird if I say I’m fourteen? It’s sure to sound suspicious,” Dia muttered, not on board with this proposal. Mom put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’ll be fine. You’re short, you’re still baby-faced, and even your chest is tiny. Heck, I think twelve would work!”

“…That wording hurts my feelings. Also, I don’t want to hear that from someone over forty who looks like they’re in their twenties!”

“Youthful features run in the Viekone family. But it’s not such a bad thing. When you reach my age, your friends’ skin will dry, and they’ll begin to sag in various places, but that’s not something we have to worry about!”

It was a fairly convincing argument, especially coming from my mom. As someone who looked half her age, she was living proof. Just like her, Dia would probably never age. In a way, my mom’s youth was a mystery deeper than magic.

“I’m still growing! I’m taller than I was last year, and my chest has gotten bigger, too!” Dia protested.

“Hmm-hmm-hmm, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. I felt the same way…,” my mom replied with an air of experience. Evidently, she understood where Dia was coming from.

“Ahem. Can we return to the topic at hand?” Dad cleared his throat to regain everyone’s attention.

My mom’s appearance had actually caused trouble for my dad as well. They elicited quite a bit of gossip whenever they went to parties or other social functions. People would regularly say he was too old for her.

“There is one more reason you need to be fourteen. In the Alvanian Kingdom, all mages are made to attend a royal academy for knights from the summer of their fourteenth year to that of their sixteenth year. Attendance is compulsory for nobles, and commoner mages are welcome to attend through an application.”

“The Alvanian Kingdom’s Royal Knights Academy? I’ve heard of it.”

The school must have been famous if Dia had heard of it. Until yesterday, she hadn’t been living in the Alvanian Kingdom.

“That’s right. As you know, the strength of an army depends on how many spellcasters it has. But just having mana alone isn’t enough to make one useful in battle. For that reason, the young mages in this country are trained in the art of war to be called upon in times of emergency. That’s the purported purpose of the academy anyway.”

None doubted the power of mages. Just by enveloping themselves in mana, they rendered the swords and arrows from ordinary soldiers completely trivial, and they gained enough strength to cleave through an armored person with a single stroke.

Untrained amateurs were incapable of employing that incredible power to its fullest. That’s why all mages now spent two years training.

Because the Alvanian Kingdom maintained only a small standing army and relied on its nobles for almost all of its military strength in times of emergency, having capable magic users was very important.

“Do you mean to say there’s another reason for the academy?” Dia inquired.

“That’s right. The nobles in Alvan have a strong sense of independence. Many don’t even see themselves as subjects of the kingdom. They view themselves as kings of their own little countries. That sort of mindset creates closed-minded people. The kingdom wants to use the school to expand the worldviews of young members of the aristocracy. Interacting with other nobles their own age should instill them with a greater sense of scope and loyalty to Alvan they would not otherwise have. My generation may have forgotten where its allegiances lie, but the next generation will not.”

I think it was mainly for the second reason that this system was introduced five years ago.

“Ah, so that’s why nobles are forced to comply, while commoners are not. The reason my being sixteen would look bad is that people would think I skipped out on the mandatory attendance,” reasoned Dia.

“Correct. If you are fourteen, you’ll be able to go to the academy this year. I want you to go to study with Lugh next month.”

My dad failed to mention that the hero had also recently been discovered. They were the same age as me and had similarly been born a noble. Whoever they were, they would be attending the academy. It was the perfect chance to get close and ingratiate myself with them as a school friend.

These next two years would be the perfect opportunity for me to study the hero as much as I wanted. Assassinating them was sure to be a cinch if I could get close to them.

“Okay. I’ll be Lugh’s younger sister. It’s a little unfortunate, though… I wanted to marry Lugh someday.”

As Dia smiled sadly, my dad tilted his head in confusion. “Why would being brother and sister make you give up on marriage?”

“Huh? Isn’t that obvious? Because we’re siblings. They can’t get married.”

“What are you saying? That’s normal in Alvan,” commented my mom, also appearing confused.

Guess I need to fill Dia in.

“Dia, in the Alvanian Kingdom, producing mages is the first priority. Suppose both parents are not mages. Then the odds of their child having mana decrease. Aristocrats surely possess the means to search for a suitable partner, but if they can’t find one, they can pay a member of a lesser noble family for the service of helping to produce a child. Sometimes even that option isn’t available, however. In such a case, a noble may have no choice but to make do with a relative,” I explained.

“Huh?! You’re saying people spend money to have children?! And by ‘make do with a relative,’ do you mean siblings?!” Dia exclaimed.

“Yeah, that’s why marriage between family members is allowed in Alvan.”

Dia’s face flickered between a deep shade of red and ghostly white. “I’m glad I can marry Lugh, but it may take a bit to sort out how I feel about this,” she admitted.

“We’re not closely related by blood, so it should be fine. It’s not as if we need to tell people we’re relatives when we go out.”

Dia went silent for a bit.

“Okay, fine! I won’t worry about it. But don’t expect me to refer to you as my older brother!”

“Even though you’ve always made me call you my big sister?”

“I’ve got two years on you, so that one makes sense! Also, you can keep calling me that.”

I felt like we were acting a little careless. If Dia was okay with it, however, then that was all that mattered.

My dad nodded in satisfaction. “So from now on, Dia is Lugh’s little sister and my daughter. You’re welcome to call me Papa if you want.”

“Ooh, you can call me Mama, too! I’ve always wanted a daughter!” my mother chimed in.

“No way. That’s too weird,” Dia answered, immediately shooting that idea down.

From that moment forward, Dia was my younger sister.

“Lugh will teach you our clan’s ways of assassination. As a direct descendant of House Tuatha Dé, you are entitled to that knowledge. I’d feel uneasy about conducting your training myself since you leave for the academy in only a month. With Lugh as your instructor, though, you can continue your lessons at school.”

“Understood. I’ll take responsibility for instilling Dia with the knowledge of our clan,” I stated.

I’d already been thinking about how to guide Dia. We were going to be a team from then on, after all.

…Also, the boys at the academy were going to have about as much control over their sexual appetites as monkeys. I intended to safeguard Dia from their evil influences, but there was a small chance she could get into a situation where she’d have to protect herself. Training her would equip her with the necessary tools to ensure her own safety.

“Uh, Lugh, you’re scaring me a bit with that face.”

“I was thinking about your practice regimen. You have nothing to worry about. I promise to help make you stronger.”

“Don’t go too hard on me.”

“I’ll be careful not to overwork you.”

I vowed to get her ready without pushing her too far.

We had one month before we’d go to the academy. That intervening time was going to be spent on a lot more than just assassination practice. The most pressing was that Dia, Tarte, and I needed to do some shopping.

The three of us were going to be heading to Milteu to make some essential purchases. Everything we required could be found there. I had a few matters to tend to as Illig as well.

We were traveling to Milteu by carriage. The journey would typically take a few days. That was far too long for my liking, so I made use of a few tricks to speed us up and cut the trip down to a single day.

“I can’t believe how fast we’re going. Everyone we pass looks at us in shock.”

“I’m using a little bit of medical magic. I cast some spells to increase the horse’s physical ability and stamina recovery. I’m also changing the horse every time we stop in a town. There’s no limit to what one can do with money and magic,” I declared.

“…Sometimes it’s hard to believe you’re human, Lugh. Ah, I almost forgot. Let’s go on a date once we get there.” Tarte looked on in jealousy as Dia snuggled up against me.

Conveniently, “Dia” works as a nickname for my new little sister “Claudia.”

“If you’re fine with it mostly being shopping, then yeah, let’s make it a date. We’re going to Milteu to buy things we need for the Royal Academy. You read the letter, right?”

“I did. I’m not sure what the purpose of some of these items is, though,” Dia admitted as she took out the list.

The school had sent a similar missive to every fourteen-year-old noble mage.

It included a permit for entry into the Royal Academy and a list of things we needed to bring with us.

“Um, Lord Lugh. Would it be okay if I went to the academy with you?”

“Of course. I need you, Tarte. I want you at my side.”

“…I’m pleased to hear it. I’ll do my best!”

Common folk could apply to attend the academy so long as they had mana. Aristocratic students were also permitted to bring a retainer with them. Those servants were even allowed to take classes with their lords or ladies. Tarte was in a unique position to apply as either a commoner mage or a servant, but the latter afforded her more flexibility, so we went with that.

“Whoa, so this is how Lugh picks up girls,” Dia remarked.

“…I didn’t mean it that way,” I shot back.

“I’m not angry. It makes me proud to see you do so well with the ladies.”

Our carriage continued to move with incredible speed. I prayed for nothing to go wrong in Milteu.

We arrived in the city ahead of schedule.

It was the first time I’d come as Lugh. During my two years here, I’d lived as Illig Balor of the Balor Company. Walking the streets, I passed many people I recognized, but none of them noticed me. It was a funny feeling.

“Let’s look at athletic wear first, since tailoring will probably take a few hours.” I was talking to Dia, but when I turned around, she wasn’t there. Tarte laughed. She raised a finger to point where the other girl had ventured off to and led me there.

“Lugh, what’s this?” Dia asked, entranced by the sweets being sold at a food cart. She looked cute as she drooled.

The trolley was carrying baked bread made from dough filled with honey and various flavors of jam. The smell wafting from the cart was sweet and pleasant.

“This is a popular sweet in Milteu, called barta. You pick the jam you want when you order. They’re delicious.”

“I have to try one… There are so many jams, I don’t know which one to pick… All right, I’ve decided. I’ll go with loquat jam.”

“What kind of filling would you like, Tarte?”

“Um, I like apricot.”

“Excuse me, sir, can we please have one blueberry, one loquat, and one apricot?”

“Coming right up. Look at you, young man. How’d you end up on a date with two beauties?”

“Jealous, right?” I said, grinning jokingly.

“You bet I am. I’m so jealous I’m gonna do this!” While laughing merrily, he gave us all a large serving of jam on our bartas.

It was kind of him to treat us, and I tipped him accordingly. Once they were ready, I handed Dia and Tarte their sweets.

“Thanks, Lugh. Wow, this is good!”

“Sorry for pressuring you into getting me one, my lord.”

“No need to worry. These are cheap, and I was hungry, too.”

I bit into my barta.

Not only was the honey-filled dough sweet, but it was moist as well. In contrast, the jam had a refreshing tartness that made it seem less sugary. It kept the taste from being overpowering.

The jam was even spread onto our bread in the shape of each of our chosen flavors.

You could see many food carts selling bartas throughout Milteu, but very few were as good as this one. My merchant’s instinct was telling me to entrust this man with a full store.

Maybe I’ll mention that to Balor next time we meet.

“This is delicious! It looked like a lot of food, but it’s not very filling, so I think I’ll be able to finish it no problem,” said Dia.

“I’m surprised, too. I want to know how to make this jam. This is so much better than the kind I make. It’s a little frustrating,” admitted Tarte.

“This is probably the best barta in Milteu,” I remarked.

“Hey, Lugh, can I try a bite of your blueberry one? It looks really good,” requested Dia.

“If we’re trading, let me in, too!” Tarte insisted.

We all traded bites of our pastries. The loquat and apricot ones didn’t disappoint, either.

Admittedly, sharing food with Dia and Tarte gave me a greater sense of happiness than any treat did.

When I looked up, I realized the three of us had attracted a lot of attention from the people around us.

Eating with two beautiful girls evidently attracted a lot of wandering eyes. The staring was starting to feel uncomfortable, and I decided we’d better leave.

After we finished eating, we went shopping and perused some street vendors. I spent two years working in this city for the Balor Company, so I knew the popular stores pretty well.

We bought only the highest-quality products. Cheaping out on tools would only come back to bite us later.

“The tailor should have our clothes finished by evening,” I said.

“Sounds good. We were able to buy better stuff than I expected,” Dia replied.

“I do like what we’ve purchased today, but when it comes to ease of movement, my usual clothes are better,” Tarte added.

She was talking about her assassin outfit. The academy’s list made it clear that a student could bring anything to use as athletic wear, so long as it was easy to move in. Unfortunately, those assassin outfits were made using the secrets of House Tuatha Dé. Wearing such a secret material in public wasn’t allowed.

“Those Tuatha Dé clothes are functional and comfortable, but they’re a little embarrassing. They’re very formfitting,” Dia objected.

“You have nothing to be shy of, Dia. Your body is lovely and attractive, like a fairy,” Tarte reassured.

That wasn’t flattery. Dia’s chest was flat, and she wasn’t very tall, but she didn’t look like a child. Her frame was that of a slim model, and her waist was enviable.

“Oh, it’s not like I don’t have confidence in my appearance. I just feel shy about being ogled.”

“There’s nothing to be done about that. You have to do what it takes to ensure ease of movement,” I declared.

The best way to ensure mobility was to wear formfitting attire. An inevitable consequence was that such garb displayed the contours of your form.

“Um, my lord, can I have a little time later for a personal errand? There’s something I want to buy,” Tarte suddenly asked.

“Sure, but what are you looking for?” I inquired.

“I—I need some new underwear. I’ve gotten bigger, and it’s difficult to find that sort of thing in Tuatha Dé. The quality of such products is better in Milteu, too…”

Ah. So she’s getting bigger.

For a moment, I thought I saw a coldness in Dia’s eyes as she gazed at the fidgeting Tarte.

Our final stop for the day was at a blacksmith to buy some swords. My magic could forge blades, ones that were undoubtedly better than could be found in any store in Milteu, but I couldn’t use them in public. For that reason, we’d sought out the most skilled crafter in the city.

No sooner had we entered than I felt someone watching me. It almost felt like we were being appraised.

“This isn’t a toy store for kids. Get out of— Hmm? You don’t look like ordinary children, especially you, boy. That blond girl, too. All right. I suppose you can pick something out.” The man tending the store looked to be in his midthirties. He gave us a stern look when we first entered, but his expression quickly softened.

I’d heard he was picky about customers, but I hadn’t known he took it to such an extreme.

“Thank you. Can we also purchase a sword for Dia…for this girl, please? I’m going to be training her.”

“I don’t mind. She seems quite capable. If you’re gonna be teaching her, then she’s no doubt worthy of using a sword of mine.”

…I can’t tell him, can I? We were only going to be using the blades we bought from him during classes. In any real combat scenario, we would be using far superior weapons. If he knew that, he’d probably turn us away.

“Thank you. We’ll take a look around,” I said. Then I began to inspect the different swords he had on display.

When choosing a blade, finding one that matched your physique and arm length was paramount. I picked out several weapons that seemed suitable and carefully examined their make. Then I decided on everyone’s swords and had Dia and Tarte take a few test swings with the ones I’d chosen for them.

“It feels so nice!”

“Mine fits me well, too.”

“…Hmm, actually, the grip isn’t quite right. It would be better if you could change the material to something softer. Can we go ahead and get these?” I asked the blacksmith.

“I was about to propose the same thing. It makes me happy that you understand swords so well.” While humming to himself, the craftsman unraveled the grip on the hilt and carefully and nimbly wrapped it with a softer material.

“There you are. The price will be…”

The total per weapon was roughly twice that of a typical blade, though that seemed appropriate. Not wanting to haggle, I paid the man.

“Thank you. These are high-quality products,” I remarked.

“It’s my pleasure. Customers like you are a rare blessing. Come back any time. Anyone who understands swordsmanship as well as you do is always welcome.”

I thought I knew everything there was to know about Milteu. After encountering the food stall from earlier and this exceptional blacksmith, it became apparent that there were still many interesting places and people left to discover in Milteu.

After we finished making small talk with the owner, we walked outside.

I then noticed a group of three young men walking toward us. One of them was clearly wealthy.

I knew this because everything about him seemed to be screaming, “I am an important person.” His two followers were undoubtedly guardsmen.

The rich man loudly instructed the others to go buy him a fitting sword. Perhaps he was preparing to go to the same academy Dia, Tarte, and I were.

Young nobles born with silver spoons in their mouths, much like that guy, were always the type to cause trouble.

After catching sight of Dia and Tarte, his eyes lit up, and his breathing intensified. His excitement was even visibly manifesting in his crotch.

Anyone could’ve guessed what was likely to happen next. Even if I told that upstart who I was, he looked the type to merely scoff at my lowly baron rank and try to whisk Dia and Tarte away.

Using my position as an assassin to scare the haughty noble was obviously not an option. This guy looked too stupid to understand the importance of the connections I held as a doctor, either.

Our social standing differences meant I couldn’t win in an argument, and striking the young man would only lead to problems down the road.

What should I do here?

The answer was simple. All I had to do was nip the situation in the bud before he had a chance to cause any trouble.

I quickened my pace and walked ahead of Tarte and Dia.

Taking long strides, I passed one step ahead of the rich man as he advanced toward the girls. A few paces after we parted, he and his swollen crotch fell to the ground.

The guards’ faces turned pale, and they ran to help him up.

I’d fired a Wind Bullet at the noble’s chin, throwing off his coordination and causing him to fall.

Using a trick of mine, I hid my mana until the moment I cast the spell and knocked him out from his blind spot. Doing something like that after he’d tried to grab Dia and Tarte would’ve given him a reason to suspect me. Because I’d knocked him out before he made a move, however, there was nothing that could tie me to the fall.

My work complete, I slowed down and reunited with Dia and Tarte.

“That guy fell really suddenly. What happened to him?” asked Tarte.

“It’s been scorching out lately. Maybe he got heatstroke?” conjectured Dia.

There was no need to tell them I’d just saved them from danger. That would only ruin the fun we were having.

“That’s everything we needed to buy. What are we doing next?” Dia inquired.

“I made a reservation at an inn for us. Take the rest of the day to rest, then go sightseeing with Tarte tomorrow morning. I have something I need to do, so I won’t be joining you,” I replied.

“That’s strangely vague. Are you hiding something, Lugh? Ah, are you meeting a local wife or something?”

“…No, nothing like that. It’s for work.”

Dia wasn’t entirely wrong. I was visiting Maha, after all. Getting together with her wasn’t without essential purpose, though.

“Hmmm. All right. Tarte, let’s have fun together tomorrow.” Dia seemed to accept my explanation.

“Yeah, I know a lot of great shops I think you’ll love,” Tarte answered cheerily.

“Great, I’m looking forward to it!”

It was nice to see Dia and Tarte warming up to each other.

I’d arranged a meeting with Maha because she’d recently informed me that she’d finally obtained a divine treasure.

While I was genuinely happy she’d managed to find a powerful weapon, I was more interested in anything that could be gleaned from studying a divine treasure. If I analyzed it, there was a possibility I’d be able to make them myself.

Chapter 2 | The Assassin Obtains a Divine Treasure

The tavern room I’d reserved was one I’d learned about while I was working at the Balor Company. It was one of the most expensive places in Milteu, and people said there was no better place to stay in the city. Thankfully, the establishment’s delicious food and scrupulous service justified the high price.

I spared no expense when it came to treating Dia and Tarte.

After dinner, the three of us retired to our room. The interior design was impressive. The place looked thoroughly cleaned, and the beds appeared comfortable and immaculate.

“That dinner was amazing! I wasn’t familiar with the alcohol, but I was excited by how much there was. I thought I was used to eating fancy food, but there were so many dishes I’d never sampled before. It was so much fun!” Dia proclaimed.

“That’s because Milteu is a harbor city. Delicacies from all over the world end up here. Milteu doesn’t have very many local specialties, but tasting things from all over the world is part of this city’s charm,” I replied.

“Wow, now I really can’t wait to go exploring tomorrow.”

“You’re right to be excited. It’s impossible to be bored in this city as a tourist.”

We sank into a lively discussion about Dia’s sightseeing plans for the following day. Tarte would’ve typically participated in such a conversation, but something seemed to be making her uncomfortable.

“…My lord, is it okay for me to be treated to such fine things? I’m only your retainer. It doesn’t feel right to me. I’m not used to being looked after. It makes me feel uneasy.”

At the moment, Tarte wasn’t wearing her servant clothes but was instead dressed in finer attire. I’d bought them for her before we arrived at the inn. Her Tuatha Dé servant clothes were cute, but I wanted to see her in something nicer every once in a while. That’s why I’d picked out something I thought would look good on her. I’d done the same for Dia, too.

Tarte was lovely, and my chosen garments rendered her indistinguishable from a noblewoman. She’d turned the heads of many men while we were out in the city.

“You have to spread your wings now and then, Tarte. You’ve got to feel constricted doing servant work every day,” I said.

“There’s no way I’d grow weary of taking care of you, my lord!”

“I’m happy to hear you say that, but you need time for yourself… Also, I don’t get many opportunities to eat with you. Eating with you makes dinner a lot more fun.”

“You enjoy eating with me… That makes me happy. O-okay, I’ll give in just for today.”

Tarte always gave her all at her job, and it’d started to worry me. I needed to force her to rest once in a while.

“I get so jealous when I look at the two of you. You seem so natural together,” admitted Dia.

“U-um, we’ve just known each other for a long time,” Tarte said, blushing. She never handled that kind of teasing well. She was so embarrassed, she hadn’t even noticed that the candies she’d been eating during our conversation had been dirtying her mouth.

How would she react if I wiped off her mouth right now? Feeling a little mischievous, I picked up a napkin.

After reminding Dia and Tarte again that I had important matters to attend to, I left the next morning.

I dyed my hair black, put on glasses, and used cosmetics to disguise my face slightly. In only a short while, I had transformed from Lugh Tuatha Dé into Illig Balor, a distinguished son of the Balor family.

I was headed to the main store of the Balor Company cosmetics brand, Natural You. The storefront was on the first floor, while the second floor was used for office space and storage.

I entered from the back, greeted the guards, and went inside. I then climbed up the stairs and knocked on the door of Maha’s office.

“Enter.”

“Hello, Maha.”

“Welcome back, dear brother. It’s been so long. I’ve been so looking forward to this day.”

Maha greeted me with a smile. She was an orphan whom I’d adopted and raised. She’d proven herself very talented and operated the Natural You brand while Illig was away.

She had straight, glossy blue hair and was wearing a thin layer of makeup. Her work attire—complete with full-length pants—gave her a very enticing, intellectual sort of appeal. Like Tarte and myself, she was fourteen years old. I would be remiss not to mention how beautiful she was, too.

“You’re as pretty as ever, Maha.”

“Why, thank you, dear brother. Don’t you want to make this pretty woman yours? You can do what you like with me whenever you please, you know.”

“I’ll think it over,” I answered, laughing awkwardly and sitting down on a sofa in the middle of the room. Unlike Tarte, Maha always said that kind of stuff directly.

She brewed some tea and sat down beside me. It smelled different from any tea I’d had before. Curious, I took a sip.

“This is an interesting tea leaf,” I remarked.

“They were brought in from the south on a newly opened sea route. Their tea has a nice balance of sweet and bitter. It makes for a very relaxing drink. If you like it, I can send some to Tuatha Dé.”

“That would be nice. There have been several things stressing me out lately, even at home. I would appreciate it if you could send them to me raw instead of boiled. I feel like I can figure out a way to improve on this tea, depending on how I prepare it.”

“That’s no problem. Let me know if you come up with a suitable preparation method. I want to expand our offerings beyond cosmetics soon.”

Imported tea leaves were a valuable product. Enjoying them myself was all well and good, but they could also be used to entertain guests.

Maha and I enjoyed the tea and made idle conversation as she brought me up to date on recent events.

“So can I go ahead and see that thing you obtained for me?”

“Well, aren’t you impatient? I was hoping we could chat for a bit longer. All right. I’ll go fetch it for you.”

Maha went to retrieve the item in question from a safe. It was wrapped up in old cloth, but I could feel mana emanating from it. Maha unraveled the fabric to reveal a small red and blue leather bag.

“This is a divine treasure?” I asked, dubious.

“Yes, it’s called the Leather Crane Bag. Its unremarkable appearance made it a rather easy purchase,” Maha answered.

Not all divine treasures were weapons. Many of them were tools. That appeared to be the case for this satchel.

“The way you explained it made it sound incredible. It doesn’t seem all that useful,” I observed.

“You’ll change our mind once you see how it works.”

Maha began to put all of the tea utensils into the bag. First, she stowed the teapot, then the tea leaf container, the cups, a basket full of sweets, and the milk pitcher. As if all that wasn’t enough, she deposited a thick bundle of files, and finally a chair.

“This is a magic bag with an infinite capacity, so long as you supply it with mana. The weight never changes, no matter how many items are kept inside. It’s so useful that any traveling trader would probably consider it a hugely unfair advantage.”

“There isn’t a merchant in the world who wouldn’t want this, no matter the price,” I remarked.

“…Considering its main function, yes. But it has a fatal flaw. Think about this logically, dear brother. If this bag were as good as it sounds, do you think I would have been able to purchase it for a price that didn’t bankrupt Natural You?”

I shook my head. As the proxy representative for the Natural You brand, Maha had vast sums of money at her disposal. However, even with a veritable fortune, I doubted it would’ve been enough to buy such an incredible bag.

“Probably not. Balor, for example, would offer three times as much as us. He would be confident he could recover his costs in just two years. There is no way we could outbid the Balor Company,” I said.

“That’s exactly right. There is a fatal flaw that prevents this bag from being worth that much: Its capacity does not increase unless you supply it with a decent amount of mana, and as soon as the mana supply runs out, this happens.”

Suddenly, all the contents of the bag exploded out at once.

“…I see. So you can’t use it unless you’re a mage, and even then, filling it with a constant stream of mana without pause would be draining. Can I take a look at it?” I requested.

“Go ahead,” Maha replied.

I poured mana into the Leather Crane Bag. By doing so, I was able to get a sense of how much its capacity could be increased. If an average mage poured their full mana output into the satchel, the total would probably be enough to fit one horse-drawn carriage. However, any typical magic user wouldn’t be able to hold that output for more than three minutes. The legendary item would, at best, be a glorified backpack. A normal rucksack that didn’t drain mana was preferable.

“Now I see why merchants don’t want it,” I said.

“It’s too unreliable for business. But you, dear brother…you can probably employ it as an assassination tool.”

“You’re right. I’m sure it’ll come in handy.”

As an assassin, being able to carry your weapons without drawing any suspicion was very important. That said, it felt like a waste to use a divine treasure for something so mundane.

As my mana capacity was one thousand times higher than the average mage’s, using the bag continuously wasn’t a problem. That everything would burst from the little container if my mana flow was interrupted for even a second was a big risk, though.

Actually, wait a second.

“I can probably make use of those,” I muttered.

I took a Fahr Stone out of a small pouch. Fahr Stones were gems I carried around as weapons. I’d filled each one with as much mana as what three hundred normal mages could produce. I used them as explosives, but I’d also devised a way for the little spheres to release their mana at a steady rate.

I poured power into the Fahr Stone, made it so that it would continuously release magic energy, and put it into the Leather Crane Bag.

“If I do this, it won’t put any strain on me, and the bag will have a steady supply of mana.”

As I’d expected, the Leather Crane Bag absorbed the mana that the Fahr Stone was steadily releasing, and its capacity increased.

“How much do you think the bag can fit?” Maha inquired.

“Half a carriage’s worth. I could increase the capacity even more if I hadn’t set the Fahr Stone to release energy at such a slow rate,” I answered.

“That’s incredible. How would you feel about offering it and some Fahr Stones to the Natural You brand?”

“That would probably increase our profits, but I’m going to have to decline. I want to investigate this divine treasure thoroughly. If I can find some commonality between divine treasures, I might be able to develop a countermeasure for any I may have to deal with in the future. I might even be able to devise a way to create some divine treasures for myself. This bag is quite convenient. I’ll make good use of it.”

Such a wondrous pouch was more than a convenient tool. I was already pondering ways to weaponize it. With a little bit of work, I believed it had the potential to become one of my trump cards against the hero.

“Thank you, Maha. You’ve found something truly extraordinary,” I stated.

“Are words of thanks all you have for me?” Maha pressed.

“What, is there something else you want?”

“Yes. I want you to kiss me.”

Maha leaned her face toward mine, glancing up at me amorously. No doubt she was just trying to tease me as she so often did.

“Ha-ha, if you don’t want to, then we can just have lunch or something…”

“Okay, sure.”

“Wait. What? You— WHAAAAA…?”

Maha, having fully expected me to turn her down, was shocked. I brought her close…and kissed her on the cheek. She blushed deep red and stiffened. There was no sign of her usual relaxed demeanor.

“How was that?” I asked.

Maha had trouble responding.

“…I…I don’t…”

She looked down at her hands and finally managed to force out some words.

“…I-I’m so happy, and embarrassed, I don’t think I’ll be able to focus on work at all today.”

She looked so cute that without thinking, I kissed her on the cheek again. Maha let out a panicked cry and froze up completely. Seeing her in such a state proved amusing, so I watched until she regained her composure.

Maha was always teasing me. There was nothing wrong with giving her a taste of her own medicine once in a while.

Likely because of the kiss, Maha pouted all through our lunch date. Even so, she couldn’t wholly conceal her elation. Spending time with her like that was great fun.

Chapter 3 | The Assassin Arrives at the Royal Knights Academy

One month had passed since that shopping trip to Milteu. Dia, Tarte, and I had finally arrived at the academy…or rather, the town surrounding the academy.

The academy was a two-hour carriage ride north of the royal capital. Apart from being a school, the place also functioned as a stronghold. It safeguarded the capital from any invaders coming south. Nowhere else in the world could you find so many mages in one place. Even students could be called upon to fight.

Concealed within the most massive bulwark in the country rested a modest-sized town.

My two companions and I were headed for the academy located in the middle of that settlement.

“We’re here, my lord. It’s almost time to put all of our studying to the test!” Tarte exclaimed.

“I’m exhausted from all the studying we’ve done this past month. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve even had dreams about Alvanian history,” Dia groaned.

The three of us had been spending the recent weeks preparing for our entrance exam.

The test didn’t determine admission to the school, but rather, what class you were placed in. No noble’s education was exactly the same. All students were divided into groups based on their level of knowledge to ensure efficient instruction. We’d been studying hard to be assigned to Class S, the best of all. I had a particular reason I needed to be placed high.

After passing the time by chatting, we arrived at the Royal Academy at last.

We told reception we were there to take the entrance exam, after which we were guided to an entrance that doubled as a plaza.

“Wow, there are so many people here,” Tarte remarked with wonder.

“There are more adults here than there are students, though,” observed Dia.

“Most of them are likely parents who’ve come to see their children off. I imagine they’re worried about how their kids will do. The test score has a large impact on your family’s worth,” I explained.

“Wow, really? That’s a little sad… Wait, what’s that?!”

I followed Dia’s line of sight and spotted an outrageously dressed individual.

“Didn’t expect to see Prince Charming here at the academy,” I quipped.

“Wha—? Surely that’s overdoing it,” Tarte added.

“That is a little much,” Dia agreed.

Ahead of us was a boy riding a white horse. Perhaps in an attempt to match his steed, the young man was garbed in fancy alabaster clothing embroidered with gold thread. Everything about him was showy.

It did, however, look like he had the mana to back up that ostentatious attitude. He was quite handsome, and he wore his outfit well.

Quite unlike myself, he was flaunting his mana for all the world to see. The emblem on his mount’s bridle made it clear that he was the heir of House Gephis. He was one of the people Dad had told me to look out for at the academy. Not only did his family hold a dukedom, but it also possessed a spot in line for the royal throne.

The flamboyant young man winked as he passed by us. I initially thought it was directed toward Tarte and Dia, as those kinds of advances so often were. After a moment, I realized it had definitely been meant for me.

“What in the world is the heir of House Gephis thinking?” I muttered.

I hardly had any time to ponder the question, however, as an even greater commotion began to attract new onlookers. There was only one person who could cause a bigger stir than the son of a duke.

It’s the hero.

He didn’t introduce himself to anyone, but his overwhelming mana alone betrayed his identity.

It was such an intense amount of mana that you didn’t even need Tuatha Dé eyes to perceive it.

The hero was surprisingly short. It was actually difficult to tell whether he was a boy or not. He looked utterly flustered. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he broke down crying.

He bore absolutely no resemblance to Setanta, the man I’d fought when I’d saved Dia. For some reason, however, this timid kid gave off a similar aura.

People swarmed the poor boy, hoping to curry favor with the hero. I watched the scene from a distance. I also had plans for getting close to the hero, but it was too early to make my move.

If this teary-eyed young man really was the hero, then he’d surely be placed in Class S. That’s why Dia, Tarte, and I had studied so hard for the entrance exam. Being in the same division would afford many opportunities to approach the hero.

Out of the nearly one hundred mages in attendance, only eight were going to make it into Class S. Winning out over all the nobles was not going to be easy. To make things more complicated, I couldn’t use House Tuatha Dé’s special assassination techniques or any of the original magic I had created.

“It’ll be hard…but not impossible.”

I’d gained plenty of knowledge and experience during both my lives. Even without using my unique strengths, Dia, Tarte, and I should’ve been capable enough to accomplish anything the academy threw at us.

When it came time for the test to begin, students filed through the school entrance. A chorus of encouraging cheers echoed at our backs.

Things hadn’t even commenced yet, and there was already such a huge ruckus. The posting of the exam results was liable to be pure pandemonium.

We followed a professor to the testing site, passing through many spacious hallways along the way.

First came the written portion.

“I’m so nervous. I know I’m going to end up in the same class as you, regardless of my grade, but as your retainer, I can’t afford to embarrass you with a bad score.”

Servant students took the test the same as everyone else, but they were always placed with their masters. They also didn’t count toward the number of people in any given class. This was because a servant’s primary purpose for coming to the academy was to support their master.

“You’ll be fine. If you’ve memorized the stuff I’ve taught you in preparation for this exam, you’ll do just fine. Or do you not trust me?” I inquired.

“Of course I trust you! I can do it!”

That honest simplicity was one of Tarte’s best traits.

The instructor arrived punctually to announce the end of our break.

“Greetings, young fledglings who will soon bear the weight of the Alvanian Kingdom on your shoulders. Welcome to the Royal Knights Academy. First, you will take a written assessment, and then, after a one-hour break, you will take a practical evaluation. There are a couple of things you should be aware of before we start. I will take no questions, and leaving your seat is prohibited. If you leave your chair, your answers will be collected. That is all. I will now distribute the test booklet.”

Packets of paper were placed facedown on everyone’s desks.

“You may begin!”

No sooner had the proctor said those words than I flipped my test over and quickly scanned its contents.

The questions were largely what I’d expected. I hadn’t spent the last month studying blindly. I’d used Illig Balor’s information network to look into recent trends for the exam, and I’d shared what I’d learned with Dia and Tarte.

The first section was about Alvanian history and law. I was relieved to see that much of the material was composed of things I’d taught to the girls.

I had to laugh a little to myself at some of the problems. This assessment had clearly been written with a strong bias. Most of it was made up of history and laws the country wanted its nobles to be aware of. You could say it was exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from an academy that aimed to bring its aristocracy together for a common cause.

The next portion consisted of problems that tested cognitive ability and mathematics. I had no doubts that Dia and Tarte could handle that section.

The way things were progressing, I didn’t suspect any of us would have trouble placing among the top scores. Sure enough, Dia and Tarte, who were sitting next to me, were flying through the test, their pencils racing.

As far as I could tell, only about 30 percent of the room was doing well.

Young nobles should’ve had no problem answering questions about their native history and laws, but that wasn’t the case for lower-ranking aristocrats. Their parents typically taught them a version of the past that painted their lineage in a favorable light. They were only instructed on the parts of history their parents wanted them to know.

Even if a young person in such a position possessed a genuine interest in the past, books were expensive, and it was challenging to figure out which tomes contained true historical accounts and which had been modified. Many volumes were filled with complete nonsense.

On this assessment, the environment in which you were raised was even more important than your intelligence. Once again, I felt grateful to have been born a member of House Tuatha Dé.

Doing well on the written portion ensured that I’d be able to get away with holding back during the practical exam. I had to make sure I got high marks.

The first half of the test ended, and our break time began. It had ended up taking three hours, so we were all understandably exhausted. None of it had been broken up by subject, so we’d had to do the entire thing in one go.

One applicant had been fighting the urge to go to the bathroom the whole time. Eventually, they gave in and had to leave their seat, flushed and crying. An even more incredible student peed their pants intentionally so they could continue to take the test. Clearly, they didn’t want to sully the reputation of their family name by leaving the exam for something trivial.

We all staggered outside like weakened zombies.

Dia, Tarte, and I walked into a spacious courtyard and found a bench to rest on.

Dia immediately set to talking excitedly about her performance on the test. “I’m sure I got over ninety percent right. That’s a good score, but I’m nervous about how that will compare to everyone else.”

“I don’t think I did quite as well as that,” Tarte admitted. “It was entirely stuff you taught us, though, my lord, so it was pretty easy for me, too!”

“I’m glad it went well. High marks should put you in the top ten,” I praised.

“I can’t wait for the results. How did you do, Lugh?” Dia inquired.

“Unless the teaching materials I used or the problems themselves were wrong, I got a perfect score,” I stated.

“I’m not surprised. You’re so smart, Lugh,” praised Dia.

“We’ll have to celebrate if you get the top grade! I’ll treat us by making some delicious food!” Tarte declared.

“There’s no need for that. There’ll probably be something happening at the dorm to commemorate the new students entering the school,” I responded.

“Aww, that’s disappointing. I’ll make some great dessert anyway!”

I forced a smile. Tarte was always putting me before herself.

Producing a basket, Tarte said, “A tired brain needs sweets! I got up early this morning to make these snacks.”

“You must have been feeling really confident about the test if you felt you could get up early to make these. I thought you’d be the type to keep studying right up until the last second,” Dia remarked.

“I just wanted to make both of you happy, Lord Lugh and Lady Dia,” Tarte answered.

“I appreciate it. These look exceptional,” I said.

The basket was full of steamed yellow buns. In Milteu, it was becoming a trend to steam bread instead of baking it. This gave the stuff a soft and spongy texture. A fair amount of egg yolk was then added to the bread to provide a rich flavor.

“All right, let’s eat.”

I tore off a piece of the squishy bread and put it in my mouth. A sweet, eggy sort of taste spread across my tongue. It was exactly the sort of thing I needed to relax and recharge my brain.

“Tarte, this is delicious,” I praised.

“Yeah, it really is. You should make more of these sometime,” added Dia.

“I’d be happy to! These did turn out quite good.”

Tarte’s steamed sweets were a kind that neither my mom nor I had ever made before.

When did Tarte start finding recipes on her own? I wondered. It was good to see her gain more confidence.

Dia prepared some tea as thanks for Tarte. She didn’t have any tea utensils, but she created some using earth and fire magic.

In the middle of our intense entrance exam with the dignity of every royal house riding on it, the three of us enjoyed a laid-back respite, eating buns and sipping tea. It wasn’t long, however, before someone arrived to ruin our peaceful moment.

“Hey, it’s the Tuatha Dé family. Would you mind if I joined this tea party?”

A handsome boy with bright blond hair was approaching.

I didn’t want anyone to ruin our precious break time, but this boy belonged to one of the four major dukedoms.

“Not at all,” I replied.

“Thank you. I’m sure you know my name already, but allow me to introduce myself anyway. I am Naoise Gephis.”

“My name is Lugh Tuatha Dé. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Ha-ha-ha, come now, you don’t need to be so polite. At this academy, strength is everything. That’s what the royal family says. And don’t you think that we, who have sworn our unfailing allegiance to the king, should comply with the word of the crown?”

That’s not something I would’ve expected someone from a duke’s family to say.

“All right, I’ll speak freely,” I agreed.

“Please do. I feel much more at ease that way. Hey, would you mind if I tried one of those treats you’ve got there?” Naoise asked, turning toward Tarte.

“N-no, not at all. But I’m sure they fall short of the sort of sweets a noble of your standing is used to tasting…,” Tarte answered shyly.

Heedless of Tarte’s warning, Naoise grabbed a steamed egg bun and ate it.

“That’s delicious. It has a simple appeal that the confections of my castle lack. I like it. I think I’ll have another.”

He wasn’t acting at all like an aristocrat. However, Naoise cut such an elegant figure that he could do anything, and it’d look as beautiful as a painting.

“What do you want? I imagine you have a purpose beyond eating,” I pressed.

“I just wanted to meet you. I was hoping you’d consider joining me and helping me to achieve my dream. Before my graduation, I want to gather the very best the academy has to offer so that we can achieve great things together. Most especially, I want you, Lugh Tuatha Dé. That’s why I approached you first,” Naoise replied.

…How much does he know?

I hadn’t demonstrated my real strength yet, and there was no way Naoise wanted to talk to a simple baron’s son. Many people at the academy hailed from much more distinguished lineages. I would’ve understood if he knew of my covert profession, but the only ones privy to that secret were the royal family and a certain dukedom.

“Why me?” I questioned.

“Because you’re more skilled than anyone here,” Naoise returned.

“Surely the hero dwarfs me.”

“The hero is strongest in terms of brute strength, and that certainly has its uses, but you are more impressive overall. But we can leave things at a greeting for today. Think it over for me… Let’s change this rotten country together. You, of all people, should understand how necessary that is. If we don’t act soon, it’ll be too late. Those sweets were truly delicious, by the way. Take this as thanks.”

Naoise tossed a handkerchief toward Tarte and walked away. Tarte spent a few seconds sitting there dumbfounded before she looked down at the cloth.

“Wow, this is really nice.”

“It’s made of the very best silk, and the gold thread embroidered into it is top rate, too. Selling this would net you enough money to live on for a year,” I explained.

“I—I can’t take this. I’m going to go give it back to him!” Tarte insisted.

“No, don’t. He would actually see that as rude,” I cautioned.

Tarte didn’t know how to handle aristocratic gestures. She still clung to some of her old low-class habits.

“Hey, Lugh. What do you think he meant by changing this country?” Dia asked.

“…Any noble with a decent understanding of current affairs can see that Alvan is headed in the same direction as your Soigelian Kingdom. Naoise probably knows that. He might be trying to prevent ruination, or he may want to flip the country on its head if he believes it weak enough to suffer the same fate as Soigel. Either way, he seems quite ambitious,” I remarked.

…The Royal Academy was a fitting place to gather personnel. You could approach people without the constraints of the nobility. It was a place unlike any other.

“I’ve never actually met anyone who’s so openly stated that they want to change Alvan,” Dia said.

“I can’t tell if I should be impressed or think he’s an idiot,” I admitted.

When I first saw Naoise riding that white horse, I thought he was just some foolish dandy with overinflated self-esteem, but it turned out he had some fire in him. Perhaps he’d ridden that steed simply to leave a lasting impression.

A trumpet sounded. It wasn’t signaling the end of the break, but rather the posting of our written test results. Dia, Tarte, and I headed toward the gathering crowd.

All right, time to see how we did.

Chapter 4 | The Assassin Meets the Hero

All of the students crowded around a board where the written exam results were posted.

“Huh? Lord Lugh, they posted two pages for the written test results.” Tarte cocked her head to one side.

“The servants’ results are posted separately,” I explained.

Because servants were placed in the same class as their masters and didn’t count toward the class’s registry, their scores were only recorded for reference. For that reason, their results were also posted on a different list.

“Yes, I did it! I ranked number one among the servants! I’m so relieved I didn’t bring shame to Lord Lugh. ‘Sixth’ is written next to my name. What does that mean?”

“That means you did sixth best among all students. That’s a rank to be proud of. You would be in a good position to make it into Class S even if you weren’t a servant.”

“That’s really impressive, Tarte. Don’t think I’m going to lose to you, though. Awww, I can’t see the results at all through this crowd. I could just blast everyone out of the way with magic…”

The throngs of hopeful students were keeping us from our rankings. Dia was hopping up and down to see her results from the back, but her height gave her trouble.

“Don’t get any dangerous ideas. Here, get on my shoulders.”

“Wha—?”

I picked Dia up and sat her on my shoulders. As I did, she made a cute little squeal that was quite unusual for her.

“Thanks, but this is a little embarrassing… Also, I’m your older sister. Don’t treat me like a child.”

“Right now, you’re my little sister, so it’s okay. Can you see the results?”

“Yeah, I can see them. Let’s see; you’re number one, Lugh. Wait, no way, there are two people in first place. That pretentious boy from earlier is tied with you.”

…I see, so Naoise isn’t all talk.

“I’m number three. Aww, I’m disappointed. I really wanted to be number one.”

“That’s still an exceptional score, Dia. The practical portion tests magic and physical prowess. You’ll get a very high score on the magic section, and your physical capabilities aren’t bad, either. You’re sure to make it to Class S.”

“No one’s going to beat me at magic. You’re the one person I’d be slightly worried about,” Dia admitted.

“No, you’re better than me at magic,” I replied.

Dia was so skilled that her incantations and her control of mana may as well have been art. I was superior when it came to simple mana output, but she had the advantage of subtle manipulation. Thanks to the goddess’s intervention, I had the most excellent parameters an average human could possibly have, yet I still couldn’t beat her. Dia was a spellcasting genius.

“Oh yeah, where did the hero place? You can probably see from up there,” I asked.

“I don’t know the hero’s name, so I don’t know,” Dia answered.

“It’s Epona. Epona Rhiannon.”

After I’d heard the hero had appeared, I did some research. My efforts rewarded me with the knowledge that a hero wasn’t born, but instead, awakened. He was a regular person, and then one day was suddenly reborn as the hero.

Epona Rhiannon was, like me, the child of a baron. Despite being a noble, he was born without mana, making him a disappointment. Baron Rhiannon had trouble producing another heir, so the house seemed to be in quite a bad situation. There were also several other things about Epona Rhiannon that were quite strange.

He was listed as male on his family register, but the more I looked into him, the more I wondered if he might actually be a girl. Seeing him in person did little to dissuade my doubts.

“Let’s see… Epona, Epona… I can’t find him at all. Ah, there he is. He’s eighth from the bottom.”

“…Thanks. That’s all I wanted to know.”

I set Dia back down.

Such a grade was typical of a normal baron’s child. It hadn’t been that long since he became the hero, and I’m sure he wasn’t given the best education.

“I thought the hero would be an amazing person, but it doesn’t look like he is,” said Dia.

“I wonder what his life has been like. You can’t get by on off-the-charts power alone,” I responded.

That’s exactly what the academy is for.

“Um, my lord. I feel like everyone’s really been staring at us…”

“That’s to be expected with the grades we got.”

I’d become an object of attention for many girls from renowned noble families. There was nothing unusual about Naoise, the son of a duke, achieving the top rank, but it was strange for the lowly son of a baron to accomplish the same feat. Several people seemed vexed by it. Some clearly didn’t care, however.

“I thought I was going to run away with this, but to think I might have an equal… You’re just as brilliant as I thought you would be.” I felt an overfamiliar pair of hands on my shoulders and turned around to see Naoise and his beautiful blond hair.

“Let’s both do our best in the second half,” I said.

“Of course. My goal is to become head of the class, and I won’t lose… I’m saying this just in case, but don’t even think about letting me win just because I’m the son of a duke. Being head of the class would hold no meaning if it was handed to me,” Naoise replied.

“Got it. I won’t hold back.”

That wasn’t entirely a lie. I planned to limit my power to a level that was okay to show, but that was the extent of my self-imposed restraint.

The bell announcing the end of our break rang, and the professor returned and proclaimed the start of the second half of the test.

The practical exam was now halfway over. The first half had been a test of our magic abilities.

To begin, we declared our strongest element, and then we were graded on our ability to chant and perform three predetermined spells.

We were graded on our mana output volume, amount of mana maintained during elemental conversion, incantation speed, and our spells’ accuracy.

I performed my incantations while repressing my power down to the high end of what a typical mage would’ve been capable of. I ended up placing second.

“Hmm-hmm, as I said, no one can beat me when it comes to magic,” said the self-satisfied girl who placed first.

“I knew you would top the chart, Lady Dia! The beauty of your incantations entranced me,” Tarte praised.

“No matter how many times I see you do it, I still don’t understand how you pull off elemental conversion while losing so little mana,” I said.

Mana had to be converted into magic. Conversion was an essential skill, and despite the aggravating amount of time I’d spent trying to get better at it, I just couldn’t surpass Dia.

The standard mana retention for a typical mage was about 60 to 70 percent, but I could get to a little under 90. Dia, however, always achieved 95 percent.

This wasn’t only important for keeping your mana consumption rate low and increasing your spells’ force. Unconverted mana hampered your casting, so a skilled elemental conversion also increased your accuracy.

There was only about a 5 percent difference between my elemental conversion and Dia’s, but that 5 percent made a big difference.

“I only placed sixth… Lord Lugh has taught me so much. I should have done better,” Tarte bemoaned, her shoulders drooping.

Tarte achieved such a good grade because I’d been teaching her. More specifically, I’d been using my Tuatha Dé eyes to observe her mana and identify points where she needed to improve. Because I could see mana, something a regular person could only feel, I was able to instruct and give corrections at an extremely efficient rate. The combination of Tarte’s hard work and my special training had allowed her to become as skilled as she was.

“You did well. The only people ranked above you are veritable monsters when it comes to mana.”

The people who placed above Tarte were me, Dia, Naoise, the hero Epona, and the prodigy of a family known for specializing in magic.

Watching Naoise’s incantations confirmed how hard of a worker he was. He possessed a keen sense for magic, and there was no doubt he had an elite teacher. But he couldn’t have achieved all he had without blood, sweat, and tears.

On the other hand, it was preposterous that Epona ended up ranking as high as he did. His elemental conversion was terrible. He only retained 50 percent of his mana at best, which was lower than average. His incantations were also slow, and his accuracy was lacking. However, his mana output was absurdly high, and with that alone, his overall grade passed Tarte’s.

Dia and I both watched his test in astonishment.

“Dia, I can’t believe what I just saw. How did a basic spell like Fireball end up turning into that?”

“Yeah, I don’t want to believe it, either. He achieved that level of force despite how clumsy and unskilled his casting was. What would have happened if his incantation was decent?”

As the name suggested, Fireball was a spell that produced a fist-sized ball of flame. The ball drifted softly through the air and was hot enough to burn skin.

That didn’t quite describe the hero’s Fireball, though.

The hero’s spell was so scorching hot that it looked like a compressed sun. It instantly surpassed the speed of sound and turned everything in its path to ash before disappearing off into the distance. It ended up blasting a hole through the bulwark that served to repel invasions. It was a miracle there were no casualties.

…This is what he is capable of with a beginner’s spell. He probably doesn’t just have ridiculously high mana capacity, but also a skill that strengthens spells.

Just the thought of fighting him made me shudder.

At the moment, his slow incantations and poor accuracy made his spells unusable in battle. If the academy’s teachings brought him to even an average skill level, he could quickly become too much for me to handle.

Next, the physical test began. Proctors tested us on various measurements, including physical strength, leaping ability, stamina, reaction time, and more.

Tarte shone on this part of the assessment.

At first glance, this portion appeared to be a simple competition of physical strength, but it was more than that in actuality. To a mage, the technique of increasing your body’s physical capabilities was essential. Instead of using mana to enhance every part of your body, it was better to focus on portions that were connected to movement.

Not many people were capable of focusing their mana only on specific body parts, though. As far as I could tell, the only participants who could were me, Tarte, Naoise, and three others. Dia was still learning.

The hero, however, as if in mockery of that advanced skill, displayed overwhelming ability and placed first in every category despite his clumsy talent with mana.

I didn’t feel like I had any chance of beating him. It felt wrong even to compare myself to someone so exceptional. Calling him a monster didn’t even begin to describe him.

Those who’d lost interest in the hero after his pitiful score on the written test immediately returned to praise him.

What caught my eye was how suffocated the hero seemed by all the attention. It looked like he didn’t handle personal interaction very well… That hardly created any problems for me, though. For people who had an expert grasp of human nature, that kind of personality was easier to deal with.

Before long, the final part of our exam began. This last bit tested our combat skills.

Knights in active service from the Royal Alvanian Order served as the students’ opponents. Their weapons were blunted, and there were doctors at the ready.

The majority of students weren’t expected to have any chance of defeating a knight. More than victory, proctors were observing what sorts of actions students took during the sparring matches.

The arena at the Royal Academy was huge, with six rings set up within it. Tarte had to leave for the waiting room because her match was one of the first. This left Dia and me alone to watch from the stands.

A few matches had already ended.

“It looks like there are a lot of impressive people here,” Dia observed.

“Yeah. I’m glad at this chance to see the strength of our classmates so soon,” I answered.

House Tuatha Dé wasn’t the only family that valued combat education. Other clans were known for producing knights. They staked their statuses on military prowess and trained their offspring in the ways of war from an early age. There were even some students who matched the active knights in skill.

“Lugh, do you think Tarte will be okay?” Dia asked.

“She’ll be fine. You know how strong she is. Actually, now that I think about it, you haven’t seen Tarte in a real fight yet, have you?”

“Hmm, I guess not. So she’s that strong, huh? I need to watch closely.”

Tarte used a spear and surpassed the strength of most active knights. I had trained her as a Tuatha Dé and instilled in her knowledge and techniques from my previous life.

Tarte entered the ring. She was already holding the spear that she usually concealed beneath her skirt.

She faced her sparring partner, but before the match began, the knight suddenly bowed. The action caused a stir to run through those in the stands. It was clearly not a customary courtesy bow. The knight appeared to be genuinely thankful for something.

Tarte looked bewildered and unsure of what to do. The knight then said something to her, and Tarte’s face flushed deep red, after which she frantically made some kind of request. The arena grew noisy as people wondered what was going on.

Tarte and the knight immediately began the match as if nothing had happened, and Tarte ended up winning. She attracted everyone’s attention; the shock that a female servant defeated a knight was palpable.

Many people were suggesting that Tarte had seduced the knight into throwing the match. They couldn’t believe that someone who was both a girl and a servant could’ve won in a fair fight. Two students sitting next to us were among those spreading rumors.

“I have to get out of here for a bit. What these people are saying is too terrible,” Dia said.

“Hey, don’t worry about them. Anyone who can actually fight can easily tell Tarte’s true skill from the way she handles her spear. The people who don’t get it don’t deserve your attention,” I responded.

“That’s true, but…”

“Relax. They’ll get what’s coming to them. More importantly, your turn is coming up.”

If Dia let her emotions get the best of her now, it could affect her performance. Unlike her, I could use those feelings to enhance my capabilities. I’d said what I did to calm her down, but I was just as angry at all the people insulting Tarte. I promised to make them regret making such accusations.

“Ah, I have to go. Cheer me on…and take care of Tarte, okay?”

Dia left, and Tarte returned shortly afterward. I asked her what she and the knight had been talking about before the match.

“Um, he recognized me from when I was getting combat experience on the battlefield. He said I saved his life once, and he thanked me.”

“…So you met back then, huh?”

While we were in Milteu, I’d decided that Tarte didn’t have enough combat experience. Using some of my connections, I got her onto the battlefield for proper action.

“Yes. I would never have expected to see someone I fought with back then, so I was surprised.”

“It looked like you made some request. What was that about?”

“Um, well, he said he was going to tell the professors about my service on the battlefield and the embarrassing nickname I was given during that time. He meant well, but I asked him not to do it.”

“You do realize that now you have to tell me what your nickname was.”

“You can’t share this with anyone, my lord… It was the Electric War Maiden… I really don’t want to be called that in front of anybody.”

The Electric War Maiden. It fits her fighting style.

Tarte’s physical strengthening was exceptional, and her mastery of wind allowed her to reach incredible speeds. Her flexibility and reflexes even afforded her full-body control at top speed.

The Electric War Maiden was quite a fitting moniker. Tarte did possess lightning-fast speed.

She wasn’t without her weaknesses, though. Tarte was still growing, which could cause problems as she got even faster. At her current top speed, she could only barely maintain full-body control. Any swifter, and it would no doubt become difficult for her to execute her attacks.

If things continued as they were, her speed would surpass her ability to perceive objects in motion. She’d probably need Tuatha Dé eyes before long.

“Oh yeah, when is your fight, my lord? I’ve been looking forward to it so much!”

“I’m one of the last, so it’s gonna be a little while. For now, it looks like Dia’s match is beginning, so let’s cheer her on.”

“You should have told me that sooner!”

Dia’s match commenced. She was wielding a sword. It was clear from the beginning that she was at a disadvantage. She put up a good fight, but the match ended in defeat after five minutes.

Dia’s main fighting style was with magic. I’d started instructing her on the basics of close-quarters combat, but she was still a learner. She also got really unlucky with her opponent. He was very talented, even for a knight. He wasn’t the sort of opponent Dia could best.

“Aw, she was so close.”

“She did well enough to get a good score. What’s important is she demonstrated her capabilities. At her current strength, we can’t ask for more than that.”

The crowd clapped for Dia. She had given it her best effort, after all.

Dia left the ring, and Epona took her place. His opponent was the commander of the Royal Order. The man was top among the knights not just in rank but also in strength. He was wearing a full suit of armor. It wasn’t any ordinary plate, either. It was made of a scarce metal called mithril, which was significantly stronger than iron armor.

To some, it might’ve seemed excessive, but I thought it was a wise decision. Even with the commander’s elite equipment, the risk of being killed in a match with the hero was high.

No sooner had the bout begun than the hero disappeared. Immediately, he reappeared in front of the commander with his little fist raised. The commander instantly vanished from sight. A moment later, there was an intense boom.

As I scanned the area, a second thundering sound echoed through the arena. I finally found the commander collapsed in the stands.

Peering at Epona, I saw broken fragments of mithril scattered around him.

…He smashed that armor with his fist.

The hero was terrifying. I’d thought I understood that already, but this was ridiculous.

Not even my Tuatha Dé eyes could register his movement. If it had been me standing there in place of the commander, I would’ve suffered the same fate. Unfortunately, Epona was only going to get stronger from here on out.

“Epona’s not quite at Setanta’s level yet, but he’ll surpass him within a year. Actually, it might only be a month,” I muttered.

I wasn’t sure assassinating him would even be possible.

“I need to become stronger,” I vowed to myself.

My turn was fast approaching, and I needed to head down to the ring.

“Tarte, I’m heading down.”

“Okay, I’ll cheer as loud as I can!”

My test results all but guaranteed my placement in Class S at this point. I’d planned on playing it safe by losing intentionally while making it look like I put up a good fight, but seeing the hero’s absurd strength left me fired up.

I might just have to put in a little real effort.

Chapter 5 | The Assassin Finishes His Exam

My match was one of the last ones to be held.

Students were heavily invested in these final rounds. The reason for that was simple: The last two contestants had the highest two grades on the exam thus far. This final battle would determine who the head of the class was.

Dia did great on the magic test, but her standing had dropped after the physical examination. Tarte was the opposite. Epona’s rank was bogged down by his poor performance on the written portion.

As a result, Naoise and I were the clear forerunners.

Naoise and I lined up next to each other and then turned toward our respective rings.

“Lugh, I said this earlier, but don’t even think about giving me the top spot… I want to win fair and square, with my strength alone.”

“I swear I’ll give it my all.”

Naoise was staring straight at me, as if looking right through to the other side. I risked him realizing I was holding back if I wasn’t careful about how I restrained myself.

We went to our rings without saying another word. My opponent was already waiting for me.

I would never have thought we would both be facing vice-commanders of the Royal Order. This wasn’t going to be an easy fight. It looked like the academy wanted to give its two best applicants a special sort of challenge.

“Lord Lugh, you can do it!”

“If you beat me, I’ll make you a large serving of pancakes for breakfast tomorrow!”

Tarte and Dia were cheering for me from the stands. It was nice of them, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed.

“Well, aren’t you popular? You’re making me jealous,” needled my opponent.

“My family can get a little overenthusiastic…,” I responded.

“Don’t worry about it. That’s just extra motivation for me. I can’t just let you use me to show off to those cute girls, little Mr. Popular.”

He’s projecting unbelievable malice.

The vice-commander had seemingly forgotten he was sparring with a student as part of an exam.

“That’s rather childish of you,” I observed.

“Ha-ha-ha. You’re probably right. But I won’t have to hold back against you.”

It wasn’t a surprise that the vice-commander recognized my ability. Once a person reached a certain level of mastery, they could gauge their opponent’s skill from their breathing and the way they walked.

We both tightened our grip on our respective weapons.

I’d decided to go with a sword for this fight. In truth, I was better with knives, martial arts, and guns, but I wasn’t all that bad with a sword. Long-bladed weapons were too clumsy for assassination. I hoped that would allow me to conceal my usual fighting style and avoid giving away any Tuatha Dé secrets.

…Also, if I fight with a knife, I may end up killing him on reflex.

The proctor asked if my opponent and I were ready, and I nodded.

“Begin!” came the announcement.

The vice-commander and I both immediately seized up, however. The reason we stopped was that we felt a tremendous amount of mana coming from the neighboring ring.

Naoise was the source. He’d aimed his sword at his opponent’s eyes and used his full mana output to strengthen his body.

His physical strengthening technique was incredible. Not only was he powerful and elegant, but he was also overflowing with a combative spirit.

I could tell from the mana coming off him that he intended to fight his opponent head-on with his full strength, without resorting to any cheap tricks. It was inspiring.

…Man, this is out of character for me, but I’m getting really fired up. I was thinking about taking it slow at first and waiting for my opponent to make the first move, but screw that.

“HAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

It’d spoil the fun if I didn’t put in some real effort. An assassin should never have done something so careless. At that moment, however, I wasn’t an assassin; I was a swordsman.

I could see the vice-commander’s mana capacity with my Tuatha Dé eyes. I adjusted my strength to match his exactly. It was a far cry from my full power, but I was still using much more mana than the average mage was capable of.

…Our mana capacity should be about the same now. That means the match will be decided by our sword skills, physical strengthening techniques, how well we read each other, and our mental fortitude.

The vice-commander grinned broadly. The one paired with Naoise did the same.

“The new students this year have some spark to them. I like it. I’m not going to hold back.”

“Same here. This should be fun. But there’s no way in hell I’m gonna lose. We have the pride of the Royal Order to uphold.”

The vice-commanders both enveloped themselves with all the magic power they could muster.

All four of us were releasing a colossal amount of mana. Every spectator eagerly awaited what would come next.

I focused everything on the man standing before me.

I was an assassin through and through. That was true in my previous life and this one as well. I was trained in straightforward melee combat, but only as a backup if covert methods failed. Additionally, I also wasn’t using any Tuatha Dé assassination techniques or surprise attacks of any kind.

Let’s see what I’m capable of with orthodox swordsmanship.

The vice-commander and I swung our swords at the same time. He was slightly faster and had a little more weight behind his motion.

I made sure we were strengthening our physical capabilities with the same amount of mana. My strengthening technique was slightly better.

When it came to raw power, however, I was the clear loser. I’d used Rapid Recovery to train my body as efficiently as possible, but I was still only fourteen years old.

On top of that, the vice-commander was an experienced blade wielder, and his body was optimized for using one. That put me at a slight disadvantage.

I was sure to be defeated if our swings made even contact, so I lowered my sword a little and relaxed my muscles. Right before our blades impacted, I drew back and avoided the attack. It was the sort of move only someone with Tuatha Dé eyes could’ve made.

My evasion had been a success, but the vice-commander read the situation and immediately pursued me. While I avoided two more swings, it was clear my opponent had expected me to do so. He was trying to drive me into a difficult position, and the tactic was working.

I wouldn’t be able to dodge the vice-commander’s next attack. If I got hit, my posture would crumble, and I’d lose all ability to counterattack.

Continuing to fight in an orthodox manner meant my inevitable defeat in seven or eight moves. My suspicion that I wouldn’t be able to win in a straightforward swordfight had been correct.

I had two choices.

The former choice was to continue as I was and lose while giving it my all in a fair duel. The latter option was to employ other fighting techniques. My repertoire was filled with maneuvers other than those exclusively used for assassination. I was worried they’d still seem too conspicuous, however.

Guess I’ll just lose.

The moment I thought that, however, I heard Tarte and Dia cheering.

…That’s right, those two are watching. I can’t embarrass myself in front of them. I can’t lose.

Rather than fixing my crumbling stance, I used my backward momentum to perform a spinning kick. From my position, my leg could reach farther than the vice-commander’s sword. I caught him by surprise and successfully planted my foot in his stomach.

The kick was strengthened by mana and normally would’ve had enough power to kill.

“Tch…”

My kick had a lighter impact than I’d expected. My opponent avoided the full force of the blow by jumping back. His reaction time was incredibly quick.

I needed to pursue him. He created distance between us when he jumped backward, rendering me unable to reach him with a direct attack, so I threw my sword at him.

“…Hey, kid, that’s not very knightly of you. But still, not bad.”

He deflected the attack, and that’s exactly what I wanted to happen.

I charged while the vice-commander’s attention was still focused on my sword. Crouching to escape his field of vision, I slipped into a blind spot.

Now positioned behind the vice-commander, I leaped up at him. I didn’t have my sword, so I swung at him using my scabbard. The point of the scabbard was made of metal. A direct blow to the temple should’ve knocked him unconscious.

“Not so fast!”

“Man, you’re pretty good…”

My strike had been from my opponent’s blind spot on his non-dominant side, but he was still able to block it with a gauntlet. That vice-commander title wasn’t just for show.

He repelled a second thrust using his sword, and my scabbard flew from my hands, whirling through the air. It wasn’t a surprising development. Scabbards were much more challenging to grip than proper weapons, so it wasn’t hard to knock one aside.

“This ends here, kid.” The vice-commander raised his sword overhead to prepare for a downward swing.

Without a weapon, I was at a considerable disadvantage. The best course of action was to get as close to the vice-commander as possible, so I rushed forward.

“What the—?”

He wouldn’t be able to swing his sword down at me if I was at point-blank range. Hesitating to close the distance could’ve cost me the match.

What’s more, I wasn’t moving in just to avoid. I was preparing an attack of my own.

I rushed forward, spun in the air using my momentum, then used all my strength to hit him with a palm strike as I landed. Using this method, I could release a powerful attack even at point-blank range.

“Haaah!”

My motion landed with the sound of an explosion.

It wasn’t a simple palm strike. The maneuver was an intricate move designed to create a massive burst of mana and energy within my opponent.

The vice-commander was sent flying through the air. He came to land outside the ring after spinning five full times. The proctor rushed over to him. And then…

“The winner is the first-year student, Lugh Tuatha Dé!” He called out my name as the victor.

“Phew, I pulled it off.”

It ended up looking like a one-sided match, but I would’ve lost if I hadn’t spent most of the match stalling. That vice-commander had actually blocked two attacks that were supposed to defeat him. It was only my third attack that’d done him in.

The reaction from the crowd was divided into three camps.

“Whoo-hoo! You’re so amazing, Lord Lugh! You beat a vice-commander!”

“Hmm-hmm, I never doubted you. You’re Lugh, after all. When you get back, I’ll give you a kiss!”

People were cheering enthusiastically like Tarte and Dia. Some others were dumbfounded that a first-year defeated a vice-commander of the knights. The last group was filled with those who were annoyed that a lowly baron’s son was enjoying such success.

A doctor rushed over to the fallen vice-commander and began treating him. After about a minute, the vice-commander opened his eyes.

He’d focused all of his mana and spirit into his stomach the moment my attack connected. I’d succeeded in knocking him unconscious, but I could tell when I struck him that I hadn’t hurt him too badly.

“This is disappointing. All I ended up doing was making you look good, little Mr. Popular. You caught me off guard by using that rough style of combat instead of the nobility’s elegant swordsmanship. If only I’d seen that coming, I might’ve won.”

“I was planning to fight in a more standard style at first, but as soon as the match began, I realized it wasn’t going to work. I ended up winning, but I feel like I lost.”

We exchanged bitter smiles, then I reached out my hand and helped him up.

“Well, regardless, you beat me handily. I’m looking forward to what you’ll achieve in the years to come. You should join the Royal Order when you graduate,” the vice-commander offered.

“I’ll think about it,” I answered with a bow.

I’d ended up winning, but I knew that my method of victory had lost me a few points. The judges undoubtedly preferred students who succeeded by overpowering their opponents with traditional methods.

Wondering how Naoise was doing, I looked over at the ring next to me. His intense battle was still raging. Unlike me, he was using proper swordsmanship.

Naoise was employing the royal style. It was Alvan’s most prestigious bladework form and had been improved upon by countless instructors throughout the generations. It tended to lean too hard into the beauty of sword fighting, but it was powerful nonetheless.

Naoise was performing it to perfection. I don’t think there were many as competent as him.

The battle seemed to be a stalemate, but Naoise was slowly gaining the advantage. His superior mana output was making the difference. The vice-commander was more skilled in terms of swordsmanship, but Naoise’s magical power gave him a more significant edge.

When the vice-commander ran out of mana, the battle was as good as over.

The vice-commander lost his physical strengthening, which threw off his stance. Naoise saw through this immediately.

Recognizing the vice-commander’s weak grip on his sword, Naoise delivered a decisive blow and knocked the weapon out of his opponent’s hand. He then put his blade to his opponent’s throat.

“I win.”

“I surrender. Geez, the rookies this year are no joke. The commander and we vice-commanders were all defeated… Losing puts a bad taste in my mouth, but it looks like this country has a bright future ahead of it.”

After Naoise’s match ended, the crowd burst with applause. Unlike when I won, everyone was cheering. His victory sparked no jealousy among the students, as there was nothing unusual about a duke’s son winning.

It didn’t bother me. I had Dia and Tarte’s support, and that was good enough. When I won, they’d cheered for me louder than anyone else.

Naoise smiled at me. “I have no idea which of us is going to come out on top.”

“It’ll all come down to the judges,” I said. In reality, though, Naoise had an 80–90 percent chance of being named head of the class. The professors preferred that kind of traditional fighting style. It would also be easier for people to accept the son of a duke as head of the class over a baron’s child. There wasn’t much of a difference between us on the assessment, so Naoise was sure to be chosen if they decided based on opinion.

After another break, the students once again gathered at the entrance of the academy.

The gate was opened, and parents all rushed through at once. They were eager to see where their kids ranked among the student body. Placement affected a noble house’s prestige.

First, the rosters for all the classes except for Class S were posted. Shrieks and roars of anger sounded in response.

Some cried, some fainted, and some were even choked by their parents or told they were being disowned.

So much for the elegance of aristocracy.

Before long, the time came for the reveal of the top eight students.

A middle-aged man walked up onto a stage. He was the headmaster of the academy.

“Greetings, everyone. It is now time to introduce the members of Class S. I will start with the servants: Beryl, Cranta, and Tarte. I want to give special attention to Tarte, who performed well enough to place in Class S even as a general student.”

This was met with applause.

That officially confirms my spot in Class S. Turns out there weren’t many mages among the servants. I guess that shouldn’t have been too surprising.

“Now, on to the students. Ranking eighth was Belruk Crutalis.”

Each student went up on stage after their name was announced, every one of them looking very proud of themselves. It meant a lot to make it into Class S.

The hero Epona was also called. He ended up in fourth. The written test had really held him back.

And then…

“These top three students are all excellent individuals who will surely serve as leaders for this new generation. Claudia Tuatha Dé, congratulations on placing third.”

Dia was called. “See you up there,” she said, and she ran up to the stage.

All eyes then fell to Naoise and me. We were the only ones whose names hadn’t been announced. One of us was going to be proclaimed the head of the class.

The headmaster paused to clear his throat. He then opened his mouth slowly.

“Lugh Tuatha Dé…”

That meant I was second, inferior only to Naoise.

I knew that would happen, so I didn’t feel down about it. Not being number one actually suited me better, as I would stand out less.

“…And Naoise Gephis. Both of you tied for first and will share the honor of being head of the class.”

A grinning Naoise clapped me on the shoulder, and we headed for the stage together.

“I didn’t think we would end up tied. It’s a shame I couldn’t beat you…but I’m delighted to see one of my men doing so well.”

“I never said I was your man.”

“Trust me; you will be. I’ve already decided it.”

This guy is ridiculous.

Amid adulation and envy, Naoise and I made our way to the stage.

How in the world did Naoise get to like me so much?

It wasn’t all bad, I supposed. His distinct presence was sure to keep attention away from me. With him around, fewer people would approach me unhappy that I was having such success despite being a baron’s son.

Regardless of how things played out, I succeeded at making it into the same class as the hero. Now all I had to do was become his friend. That didn’t seem a particularly daunting task.

Chapter 6 | The Assassin Receives a Secret Mission

Tying for first with Naoise had garnered me quite the reputation.

“The headmaster suddenly summoning us like this must mean he thinks rather highly of we four,” Naoise remarked.

“Yeah, probably. He did single us out instead of calling all of Class S,” I responded.

Our other classmates went straight to the classroom, but Naoise, Dia, and I—the students with the three highest grades—had been called to the headmaster’s office. Tarte’s presence had also been requested.

“Your little sister and your retainer are both very skilled, Lugh. When you come to serve me, you’ll bring them along, too, right?” Naoise asked.

“Once again, I haven’t said a word about helping you.”

“Ha-ha-ha, relax. I’ll make sure you change your mind,” Naoise answered with a laugh. He was starting to trouble me. As the son of a duke, he wouldn’t be incapable of forcing me to join up with him.

The only ones who could oppose a duke were the royal family and the archduke. If this became a serious problem, there was a duke with a strong connection to House Tuatha Dé who could help out. That duke’s clan was the only house other than the royal family that knew of the secret profession of House Tuatha Dé.

“I know that face. You’re thinking about your family, aren’t you? Well, you have nothing to worry about. I’ll take care of them,” Naoise declared flippantly.

“Do you know what you’re saying?” I asked.

“Of course. If I can’t manage that much, how will I ever change this country? But we can discuss this later. We’ve arrived at the headmaster’s office.”

After giving the word to his own servant, Naoise knocked on the door.

“Enter,” called out a deep voice. We opened the door and walked inside.

The headmaster was a middle-aged man with white hair. Despite that, he was a powerful-looking man. His physique didn’t betray a single hint of weakness. His white hair looked like the mane of a lion, and he had a special kind of presence about him.

His strength was well-documented. He had been the Royal Order commander until his retirement five years ago and was said to be the strongest and best instructor in the organization’s history. Even now, many thought him to be more capable than the current commander.

“Naoise, Lugh, Claudia, and Tarte. I am very thankful to the four of you for attending this school. Especially in a time such as this,” the headmaster began.

“Are you talking about the hero, sir?” I asked.

“That is correct. Epona is powerful. But he is raw, and he needs people to support him. The four of you are more than fit to be his friends and companions. Before long, I will have the four of you tour the country at his side.”

For a moment, Naoise looked like he was going to reject the headmaster’s proposal outright, but he restrained himself.

“Headmaster, those are very kind words, but we, too, are still untrained. There are plenty of knights and mages more capable than us. Even if our skill is as great as you say, we lack true combat experience and will surely fail to deal with any unforeseen circumstances that may arise. We are not worthy of being the hero’s companions. Please reconsider.”

That was unexpected. As obsessed as Naoise was with success and the limelight, I didn’t think he would refuse. Traveling with the hero was the greatest honor imaginable. If all went well, it was an opportunity to win the rare privilege of having helped to save the world.

“Cease this humility. On the entrance exam, you and Lugh proved you are already stronger than a vice-commander of the Royal Alvanian Order… There aren’t many people who can boast that kind of strength,” the headmaster stated.

“But as I said, we lack experience and will not be able to deal with unexpected circumstances,” Naoise insisted.

“Then become stronger. That’s what this academy is for.”

“I cannot accept such a great responsibility.”

“Hmph, you’re still resisting? Quit this dog and pony show, Naoise Gephis. I guarantee you, being a companion of the hero will not be a detour for what you want to accomplish. Do you understand me?”

“…Very perceptive, Headmaster. Okay, I promise to devote my strength to the hero.”

Naoise bowed in a manner befitting one of his stature. He probably realized it would be a waste to argue any more. This speed of ascertainment was one of his strengths.

I understood the situation, but there was one thing that was bothering me.

“Headmaster, why didn’t you call the hero here? What do you have planned for us? If all you wanted was for us to be his companions, then it would have made more sense to have him here, too,” I said.

“How astute, Lugh Tuatha Dé. You are strong, but your intelligence is even more impressive,” praised the headmaster.

I had a feeling the older man wasn’t only going by the exams when he said that. The headmaster’s saying he wanted us to be the hero’s companions meant he’d used every means at his disposal to look into our backgrounds. That being the case, this wasn’t the time for me to play dumb.

“What I think you want from us is to be Epona Rhiannon’s chains. You aren’t telling us to follow him out of a sense of duty, but as friends. That’s why it needs to be us. There are plenty of people more skilled, but only we can fulfill that sort of role. Honestly, though, I feel a little reluctant,” I said.

“Hoh-hoh-hoh, you are correct. I would expect no less from a Tuatha Dé. You really are his son,” the headmaster complimented.

“I would expect no less from a Tuatha Dé…” How much does he know? Maybe the royal family shared information to help the headmaster keep the hero in check.

“Uh, Lugh. I’m not really following this. Can you tell me what’s happening?” Dia asked.

“The hero is the strongest living thing in the world. His power defies all norms. No one can hope to restrain the hero with strength alone. If the hero decided to destroy the Alvanian Kingdom, the country would be finished. Do you get it now?” I asked.

“Yeah, I understand. That strength could be a problem,” Dia replied.

“Right. An unfettered hero is scarier than even the monsters and their master, the Demon King. That’s why we need to reach his heart. To put it simply, if Epona has good friends, that will make him want to protect the country. The hero doesn’t need support. Companions would only slow him down in a fight. What we are being asked to do is observe him and become the chains binding his heart.”

“No way…”

The hero was so strong that drugs wouldn’t have any effect on him. Brainwashing was unlikely to work, either. That’s why we needed to become his friends and appeal to his emotions. It was cruel, but it made sense.

“Hmm, I have nothing to add. It is all as Lugh said. Whether you think you can do it or not, I want you to try. In a way, you’ll be offering a service to Alvan greater than even the hero himself. You can expect a suitable reward,” the headmaster assured us.

Tarte’s shoulders had begun to shake. She looked like she was going to say something, though she remained quiet. I met her eyes and urged her to speak, and she timidly raised a hand.

“U-um, what would happen if this conversation were to leak outside of this room?”

“It would be treason against the kingdom—treason of the highest order. Failing at this task would end in the same result,” the headmaster responded coolly.

He was saying that the four of us and all others involved would receive capital punishment. If Tarte were to be accused of sedition, my parents and I would also be executed.

Naoise and I made eye contact, and we both forced a smile. This was quite a responsibility to heap upon a group of fourteen-year-olds.

“Understood. Let’s become Epona’s dearest friends,” Naoise declared.

“I will do my best to make that happen,” I said.

“Looks like we don’t have a choice. Count me in, too,” added Dia.

“I’ll do my best! I follow Lord Lugh wherever he goes!” Tarte vowed.

And so the four of us were given the duty of becoming the hero’s companions. Thankfully, the academy seemed prepared to assist us to some extent.

The school was using me, and I was using the school. In a way, it was the best form of cooperation I could’ve hoped for.

We left the headmaster’s office to find a large, kind-looking male professor waiting for us with a smile.

“Hey, it looks like the headmaster is finally finished with you. Come to the dining hall; there’s a welcome party being held there for the new students. You don’t want to miss out on the feast! Naoise and Lugh, I would like you two to give a speech greeting the new students. Think it over for me.”

In an instant, the gloomy mood of the previous conversation had been wiped away.

“I’m not particularly good at that kind of thing,” said Naoise.

“Oh, get out of here, Naoise. There’s no way you’re bad at public speaking,” I shot back.

“You got me… Back to the previous topic. You and I should be able to accomplish anything together. All we have to do is manipulate a kid who’s scared of other people and lacks confidence. That should be nothing for us.”

“For sure. Looking at it like that, it doesn’t sound too hard.”

“Ha-ha-ha, and suddenly we’re working together. This isn’t so bad. I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do.”

We walked to the welcome party without another word.

I couldn’t help but worry about that future the goddess had told me about, though.

Once the hero defeats the Demon King, they will go insane and bring the world to ruin.

…What exactly is going to cause that future to come about?

If Naoise and I become the hero’s friends and he goes mad anyway, then we might be the cause of that instability. Perhaps he’s destined to lash out at the world after discovering our betrayal.

I was likely overthinking things, but it was undeniable that our little quartet was a group of traitors. Naoise had his own goals he was working toward, and I was only ingratiating myself with the hero so I could kill him one day.

We owed it to Epona to at least try to make him happy, even if our friendship was a sham. If we could succeed in doing that, maybe we could find a future where he didn’t lose his mind. That way, I wouldn’t have to kill him.

When we reached the feast hall, I spotted Epona, clearly alone despite the flock of people surrounding him.

Time to introduce myself to him. I need to make sure I leave a good impression.

Chapter 7 | The Assassin and the Hero Become Friends

A party was being held in the dorm’s dining hall to celebrate the new students’ arrival. It was a magnificent feast, complete with alcohol.

“Hey, this food isn’t bad,” said Dia.

“Naoise probably eats this kind of food every day,” I remarked.

Given the liveliness, the banquet had clearly started before our arrival.

A large crowd of students encircled Epona.

If I had approached him before the entrance exam, he would’ve thought of me as just another face in a giant swarm of people trying to force themselves into his life. Now that I was the head of the class, however, I would stand out.

The crowd parted as I approached Epona.

I’d been observing him this entire time. I’d watched his every move intently during the exam. For that reason, I knew exactly how to deal with him.

All right, time for first contact.

“I’m your classmate, Lugh Tuatha Dé. It’s nice to meet you.”

“N-nice to meet you, too. I’m u-uh, Epona. Epona Rhiannon.”

Epona squeezed my outstretched hand tightly.

His skin was calloused. It wasn’t the sort that came about from regular sword practice like you might’ve expected the child of a distinguished military family to have, however. It was the kind that came from agricultural work. His muscles also betrayed the build of a farmer. He really didn’t seem to have much combat experience.

“We’re going to be in the same class, so we should be friends. Let’s do our best to support each other,” I said with a smile.

“O-okay. But I don’t think I have anything I can teach you—”

“There’s no need for modesty. You’re very gifted physically. There’s a lot I would like to learn from you.”

“R-really? Then can you please teach me how to study? I didn’t understand anything on the exam.”

“Sure, I’d be happy to help.”

I spoke to him cheerfully, and our conversation began to pick up steam. I thought it best not to be overly formal. Epona may have been the hero, but I knew he didn’t want that.

He’d known only cruelty most of his life, but once he became the hero, he was quickly subjected to nothing but the highest flattery. He was alone growing up, and becoming the hero had done little to change that. It was clear to me that Epona was starved for the warmth of human affection.

That’s why he looked so lonely despite being surrounded by so many people.

What Epona wanted was someone who’d converse with him as an equal, and that’s what I was aiming to provide.

Eventually, the flow of our conversation changed. Initially, Epona was only responding to things I said, but he began to take the initiative and introduce topics himself after a little while. That was proof he was opening his heart to me. I thought it wise to withdraw soon.

I wanted to leave him only with favorable memories of me but still wanting more. He needed to be reluctant to see me go.

Just then, a professor approached me. It was time for me to deliver my address as a representative of the new students.

“Sorry, Epona. It looks like I have to go,” I said remorsefully.

“That’s okay. You’re head of the class, so it can’t be helped. It’s amazing you were able to achieve so much despite being from a baron’s family like me.”

I thought I saw a flash of envy in Epona’s eyes.

“I can’t say that birth is irrelevant, but it isn’t everything,” I replied.

“You’re amazing, Lugh. You’re so mature, daring, and cool. Also, if I have you…it seems like you won’t get hurt.”

Epona said that last part in a barely audible whisper. I probably wouldn’t have heard it without my enhanced hearing.

“It seems like you won’t get hurt.” What did he mean by that?

Naoise and I moved to a location in the dining hall where we would stand out the most and gathered all the new students’ attention.

Naoise spoke first.

“I don’t feel like dragging this out, so I’m just going to say what is foremost on my mind. I want to compete with every one of you. The growth I will gain contending with you all is the main reason I came to this academy. Force me to improve by threatening my spot as head of the class! Let’s all strive to get stronger together. That is all I have to say.”

After his extremely manly speech ended, the students erupted in applause.

Well, isn’t he cool? That’s not going to be easy to follow up.

Naoise gave me a mischievous look. Clearly, he’d given me a tough act to follow on purpose.

His words hadn’t been a lie, though, so I couldn’t be mad at him for it. Nothing he’d said had been merely to rile everyone up.

All right, I need to focus on my speech. I’m up next.

“Every one of us left our homes behind to come here. Honestly, two years is a long time, and I’m sure there are plenty of us who would rather have devoted this time to developing our own domains,” I began.

A good number of people laughed.

“Even still, we were summoned here to pledge our allegiance to the Alvanian Kingdom. I swear to you that your time here will not be a waste and that you will gain a lot during your tenure at this school. I want everyone to think of it that way, because this country’s prosperity depends on our growth. Let’s all do our best so that two years from now, we’ll look back and be glad we came here.”

Dia and Tarte clapped loudly, and then applause spread through the rest of the crowd like a chain reaction. My speech was pretty corny, but it was perfect for the sort of situation I was in.

A professor gave some closing words, and Naoise and I returned to the party. Dia and Tarte wasted no time in approaching.

“Lugh, that was so cool,” praised Dia.

“Yes, your speech was so grand. You really felt like the head of the class! It’s a shame there isn’t a spell that can preserve sound,” Tarte said.

“Thanks. It was a little embarrassing, though,” I replied.

“By the way, I picked out some food I thought you might like since you haven’t had a chance to eat yet, my lord. Here you go.” Tarte handed me a plate with a few different items arranged neatly on it. Just as she’d said, it was all stuff I liked, and she’d even gotten me perfect portions of each.

“You’re a lifesaver, Tarte. There’s barely any food left. Guess that’s to be expected with so many growing teenagers in one place,” I stated.

“So how did things go with our job tonight?” asked Dia.

“Good. I made contact with Epona. A lot of the people hanging around him are looking at me now. I broke off our conversation at the perfect time, so I expect him to approach me before long.”

I took a moment to look around and noticed someone walking toward me.

Then I caught sight of Naoise speaking with Epona. He was going for a different sort of approach to get close to the hero.

He’s skilled at this, I thought. The higher ranking a noble was, the greater the need to know how to deal with their superiors. The highest members of the aristocracy received special education from a young age for this purpose. I held no doubts that Naoise was perfectly capable.

One thing was bothering me, however. Naoise was talking to Epona as if the hero was a girl. Epona was officially a boy. I needed to look into the matter again. Naoise was the son of a duke. Perhaps he was privy to more information on the hero than I was.

“Dia, Tarte. On the surface, your social status means nothing here. But…,” I started.

“I understand, Lugh. I know that’s not how people think,” Dia affirmed.

“I’ll do my best not to shame you, my lord,” added Tarte.

So long as they understand, we’ll be fine.

A Class S boy from a notable family of knights sauntered up to me. I wanted to make sure I was on good terms with him.

After the welcome party ended, everyone was guided to their assigned dormitories.

“It’s weird to me that there are three different kinds of lodgings,” remarked Dia.

“It would be much less of a hassle if there were only one. I’ll never understand how rich people think,” Tarte agreed.

They were both puzzled as to why there were multiple places where students could live.

“There’s a reason the domiciles are divided. You’ll understand when we get there,” I stated.

The first dorm was only for Class S students and their servants. When we arrived at our assigned place of stay, Tarte’s eyes went wide.

“This isn’t a dormitory. This is a mansion!” she exclaimed.

“Students are treated entirely differently depending on what class they’re in. That doesn’t just apply to our lessons; it also extends to our lifestyle,” I said.

Once inside, we were each assigned our own quarters. Dia had rooms separate from mine, but since Tarte was my servant, she would be staying in the same suite as I was.

We had a living room, a kitchen, and three other all-purpose rooms. Our furniture and decorations were all top-rate items of the highest quality. Apparently, the school was even prepared to supply us with more furniture if we desired. Even our laundry was handled by academy staff.

“So this is our apartment, my lord.” Tarte marveled at the place.

“Sorry about this, Tarte. Servants are given a room in their master’s quarters. Your grade was good enough to enter Class S as a student. You could’ve had one of these apartments to yourself,” I said.

“I’m not unhappy about this at all! I’m glad we’re together. Sharing a room with you, my lord… We’ve been living in the same house for years now, but for some reason, I feel really nervous about it.”

Tarte suddenly clenched her fists tightly in front of her chest, and her breathing grew heavy. She was scaring me a bit.

There was a knock at the door, and I answered it.

“Lugh, Tarte hasn’t flung herself on you yet, has she?” Dia asked, peeking in.

“Wh-what are you saying?!” Tarte cried.

“Hmm-hmm, I’m sure sharing an apartment between just the two of you is making you feel uneasy. Maybe I should live here, too. There are enough rooms for us each to have our own.”

“But what will you do about your room, Dia?” I asked.

“I’ll use it for storage. It’s the perfect size for it,” she replied.

Spoken like a true noble who had spent their entire life in a castle.

“Are you serious?” I pressed.

“Of course I am. I’m fine with you forming that kind of relationship with Tarte, but I don’t like the idea of her getting a head start on me,” Dia replied evenly.

“I-I’m going to do no such thing! I’m not that daring!” Tarte exclaimed.

I was tempted to ask Tarte what she would do if she was a little more daring, but that would be stepping on a land mine.

“Anyway, I don’t mind you living here, Dia. You can move in if you like,” I said.

“I’m okay with it, too. It will be easier to take care of you this way. Honestly, this is a relief. If it had been just Lugh and me, I would’ve… Ahem.” Tarte left that last part unspoken.

“All right, I’ll get my luggage later,” Dia decided.

We would still have our own rooms in my quarters, so I didn’t foresee a problem.

…Though if my classmates hear I’m living with two cute girls, I’ll get teased relentlessly. On paper, though, they’re just my little sister and retainer.

“I’m shocked by how luxurious this dorm is. I can’t believe they give this much space to one student. I guess that’s to be expected of an academy built for mages, though,” Tarte observed.

“Well, they only go this far for students in Class S. Class A students are given their own rooms, but their beds, desks, and dressers take up most of the space. Those in Class B and down have to share a room with a roommate, and they have no choice but to either do their chores or have their servants do them. That’s why everyone works so hard preparing for the exams. It’s the only way to get into a higher class and live more comfortably.”

I thought it to be a perfect motivation. The pupils in the lower classes would undoubtedly study their best so they could get their own rooms.

“Wait a second, what about the students in Class B and lower who have servants? How do their servants take care of them?” Dia inquired.

“All servants who are not in Class S stay in Class C’s dorm in shared rooms designated for servants. They then travel between that dorm and their master’s dorm.”

“That means if my grades drop, I’ll be separated from you… That would be terrible. I’ll do my best so we can continue living together, my lord!” Tarte declared.

“I don’t like the sound of that, either. I’ll make sure to give it my all, too,” Dia added.

“You shouldn’t need that kind of short-term goal to want to study,” I muttered with a forced smile. In Tarte’s case, her place of residence depended entirely on my grades, so she didn’t need to study. I liked her enthusiasm, however, so I held my tongue.

“You’re right! I still can’t get over how incredible this place is. We even have a kitchen. I can use it for baking a cake to celebrate Lord Lugh becoming head of the class,” Tarte said, enthused.

“Let’s leave the cake for after training. There’s a workout room in the Class S dorm. You can make reservations, so I’ll be able to use it to teach you both Tuatha Dé techniques,” I replied.

“We have everything we could ever want here. All right, leaving the cake for after a workout sounds good. It’ll taste even better that way,” Dia decided.

“I agree. I’m going to be studying and training with Lord Lugh and then sleeping in the same apartment every night. This makes me feel bad for Maha,” admitted Tarte.

Maha was probably working hard at the store right now. I’d have to give her a request to perform a follow-up investigation into Epona. I needed to learn everything there was to know about House Rhiannon.

Dia, Tarte, and I headed to the training room. I was taken aback by the variety of equipment and the spaciousness of the place.

It looked like our new life at school was going to be quite comfortable.

Chapter 8 | The Assassin Goes to Class

After exercising in the workout room, I took a shower and returned to the apartment.

Before I went to sleep, I took a moment to reflect on the day’s training.

I had succeeded in creating a new killing move. It was a trick that involved the Leather Crane Bag. The maneuver still had room for improvement, but I was happy to have the basic idea down.

Dia had finally established a foundational level of physical strength. Her prior sword training helped her learn the basics in a short amount of time. I planned to move her onto practical training soon. It’s fair to say her training was progressing quite smoothly.

The problem was Tarte.

“…As I feared, her swiftness is becoming too much for her vision.”

Tarte could fight at ridiculous speeds thanks to her training in the Tuatha Dé methods. Her superior physical strengthening technique and the acceleration of her wind affinity also played a part. Unfortunately, her eyes weren’t able to keep up anymore.

She’d be fine against most elite-level opponents, but if her opponent was as strong as my dad or me, she’d go down easily.

There were a few ways to fix this.

The first was to train Tarte to only fight at a pace her senses could keep up with. That was the simplest solution, but it’d also limit her power.

The second method was to give her Tuatha Dé eyes. They would dramatically increase her perception.

My dad had already taught me how to perform the surgery. I needed to practice on someone before I did the procedure on my future child anyway.

But if I failed, it would mean blindness for Tarte.

I at least wanted some kind of practice before attempting the surgery on Tarte. I’d done the operation many times on criminals, but it’d failed on almost all the non-mages. That really only served as a way to memorize the steps in the procedure.

To be absolutely safe, I wanted a mage to rehearse on.

“Next time I get an assassination job, I’ll secure the target for that.”

It seemed the best way for me to get what I wanted. I’d report that I’d killed the target, but instead, I’d kidnap them, practice implanting the Tuatha Dé eyes, then kill them.

The biggest problem with that plan was I wasn’t going to have many assassination opportunities while at the academy. My dad was handling requests while I was away. The only exception would be a target at the school itself. My dad was sure to hand such marks over to me.

A bell sounded in every dormitory, signifying that it was time to wake up. I changed into my uniform, left my room, and went to the living room.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror.

My uniform was black with a blue outline. I had an armband garnished with the golden symbol of Class S. The armband was a quick indicator of which class a student was in and determined the treatment they’d receive at the facilities throughout the academy.

“Good morning, my lord.”

“Morning, Tarte. Your uniform looks cute on you.”

“It fits me well and is really easy to move in. I like it, too.”

Tarte gave a spin, her skirt fluttering in the air.

Her outfit was somewhere between a maid’s attire and a school uniform. The servants’ clothes had a different design so you could tell them apart from the students.

“I think I like yours better. It’s cuter than mine,” Dia said sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she entered the room.

Dia’s garb possessed a more elegant appearance. It hugged close to her slender frame.

“You think so? I think that uniform definitely suits you better, Lady Dia,” Tarte complimented.

“I agree. You look even better in beautiful clothes like that than you do in cute ones,” I added.

“…You’re making me blush. But I’m happy. It’s good that Tarte and I both have outfits that suit us so well,” replied Dia.

I couldn’t have agreed more, just like how more elegant attire suited Dia, cuter garb befitted Tarte.

“You two haven’t forgotten anything, have you? The first day is critical,” I cautioned.

“Have a little faith in me, Lugh,” Dia said back.

“I checked multiple times yesterday, so I’m fine…,” Tarte answered. “Okay, breakfast is ready.”

Tarte brought plates of food into the living room. The main dish was corn soup. She had also made freshly baked bread with lettuce and soft scrambled eggs placed on top. I had some of those after spreading Tarte’s special tomato sauce on them.

“Where’d you get these ingredients?” I asked.

“Last night, someone came to our dorm and asked me if we wanted them to supply us with ingredients to make breakfast or if we’d use the dining hall. I asked for ingredients, and they were delivered this morning,” Tarte explained.

“Good decision. Your cooking puts me at ease. I haven’t been able to relax since yesterday, so I’m grateful,” I replied.

“Yeah, I want to eat with just the three of us every day. This is better than eating at the dining hall,” Dia agreed.

We ended up having a lovely, laid-back meal. We enjoyed some black tea and leftovers from the cake Tarte had baked last night after we finished eating. Before we knew it, the exhaustion from yesterday was gone.

As soon as we left the dorm, Naoise rushed over to join us.

“Good morning, Tuatha Dé. What do you say to heading to class together?”

“Good morning. Sure, let’s go,” I said.

“Ha-ha-ha. It turns out even I am prone to feelings of helplessness when alone. I had quite an unfortunate incident this morning,” Naoise revealed.

“You did?” I asked.

“Yes. I decided to get breakfast in the dining hall. Unbeknownst to me, the seat I chose turned out to be designated for upperclassmen, so I got a good telling off. They were nice enough to let me remain there because it’s the first day, though.”

Our dormitory was for Class S students. That included upper-class students, so what Naoise was describing was possible.

“This rigid system of seniority is annoying. We should be careful of older students going forward,” I said.

“I guess. Some of our seniors seemed easy enough to get along with, so I’ll see if I can’t extract some useful info from them,” Naoise answered with a laugh.

Naoise had also brought a servant to the academy. He could’ve just as easily taken his meals in his room. He’d probably decided to eat in the dining hall because he wanted to build connections. I was willing to bet he’d sat at that upper-class student table specifically to make an impression.

“Just make sure you don’t go too far,” I chided.

“…Wow, you get it, don’t you? Since that’s a warning from a dear friend, I’ll be sure to be careful,” replied Naoise.

It took about three minutes of walking to arrive at our classroom building. We’d come about ten minutes before lessons began, but everyone else was already there.

There were three significant people in my classroom: Naoise Gephis, eldest son of the dukedom of Gephis; Finn MacCool, the second son of House MacCool, a lineage known for their knights; and the hero Epona Rhiannon. Everyone else was excellent in their own regard, but not to the point where I needed to give them special attention.

It was best not to get on the wrong side of Naoise or Finn. They both held high social standings, and most importantly, they were capable combatants.

Finn trumped me in terms of pure swordsmanship. The sharpness of his mind was not to be discounted, either. He’d seemed quiet when I talked to him at the party last night, but his intelligence was apparent. While he didn’t flaunt his ability like Naoise, I needed to be careful around him all the same.

“Good morning.” I greeted my classmates with a smile, and everyone welcomed me back. On the surface, at least, it seemed no one in Class S held animosity toward me because I was the son of a baron.

Naoise said a couple of words to me and then walked toward Finn. He’d undoubtedly noticed Finn’s skill and was probably planning on acquiring him just as he was with me.

Before long, the professor arrived. The bell rang as he walked through the door.

“Looks like you’re all here. I’ll begin by introducing myself. I am your instructor for this class, Miles Dune.”

Like most of the instructors at the academy, Miles Dune had a well-toned body. He was a dark-skinned man with a robust physique, keen eyes, and a presence that suggested he’d seen plenty of combat.

“Every one of you has an ability that separates you from the rest of the first-year students at this school…for now. That could all change in as little time as six months.”

Half a year. That’s when the next exam would be held. Students were moved up and down into the different classes based on the tests held throughout our academy tenure.

“With the favorable treatment you’re all receiving, I bet none of you think you’ll ever lose your spots in Class S. In a way, that’s correct…but don’t underestimate the tenacity of those trying to claw their way up to your current positions. Every assessment period changes the roster. I recommend you all find a sense of urgency. Otherwise, you might find yourselves booted from Class S sooner than you think.”

So even though we’ve succeeded in getting into Class S, we still have to study like maniacs to stay in it.

“Now that the preamble is out of the way, let’s get started with your first lesson. During your two years here, you will gain the education and strength necessary to serve the Alvanian Kingdom effectively… There is one other thing I forgot to mention. You all have obtained the best circumstances possible for your growth. I want you to conduct yourselves appropriately, as Class S is the face of this academy.”

The students nodded, and the first lesson of the year commenced.

We began with Alvanian history. After looking at the other students, I noticed that Epona had his head in his hands. I made a mental note to strike up a conversation with him later by offering to help him study.

Suddenly, I sensed a familiar presence.

I looked out the window and saw a white pigeon flying by.

It was a special messenger bird used by House Tuatha Dé, and it was flying toward my room.

The only ones who contacted me that way were my dad and Maha. It was rare for my dad to send a missive, and I’d only sent Maha the request for an additional investigation into Epona yesterday. Maha was superbly talented, but there’s no way she could’ve sent results back already, so it must’ve been something else.

…I’ll go check that right after class.

If my dad sent the message, then it was probably an urgent assassination job. If Maha was contacting me, then chances were it was regarding some troublesome matter that she and the older brother of my fake identity couldn’t deal with alone.

Chapter 9 | The Assassin and the Hero Face Off

My classes were done. Our first day at school had mostly just been lectures.

“Hey, Lugh, want to get lunch at the café? The members of Class S should build a sense of unity,” said Naoise.

“Sorry, I can’t today. Please invite me next time, though.”

I understood how building intimacy with my classmates was essential, but I needed to check the contents of that letter as soon as possible.

“That’s too bad.”

“If Lugh isn’t going, then I’m gonna head back to the dorm, too,” Dia declared, and Tarte nodded.

“No, you two should go. It would look bad if none of us went, so can you both go and represent House Tuatha Dé for me?” I asked.

I wanted to avoid the three of us isolating ourselves here. If they went with the others, they could create some connections.

“Okay, I understand. You should do your part to get close to everyone, too, Lugh.”

Dia had grown up the daughter of a count, so she was used to the nobility’s politics. I didn’t need to spell this kind of thing out for her.

I smiled at Tarte, who was looking anxious, and then I returned to the dorm.

The carrier pigeon was resting its wings in our apartment’s birdcage. The little creature had a letter tied to one of its legs.

“You must’ve worked really hard to get here. You did a good job,” I said, petting the bird.

I took the message and opened it.

“It’s from Dad. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.”

He was just asking how things were going at the academy, if I was watching my diet, and if I needed any money.

This is a code. There’s no way he would use a carrier pigeon to send that kind of missive.

When using a carrier pigeon, there was a risk of an intercept and information leaking. For that reason, the letter was encoded so that if a third party read it, it would just seem like the simple message of a dad worried about his son. The cryptic dispatch would raise suspicion if the content didn’t make any sense.

I got to work on decoding the note.

“…I see, that’s why he contacted me.”

After reading all the way through, I laughed.

Apparently, an assassin had infiltrated the academy to assassinate the hero, Epona. I needed to find that assassin and kill them. The headmaster had already been informed and could provide me with backup. There was no information about the killer, so I first needed to identify them.

“I need to protect Epona? What kind of joke is this? Like any assassin would actually be able to kill him. Just let them try.”

From the moment I’d laid eyes on Epona, I’d been thinking about how to off him. Unfortunately, I’d still yet to come up with an answer. Even if I were to catch him completely off guard, it would’ve been nearly impossible.

In my mind, I imagined how best to end Epona if he warmed up to me and approached in a vulnerable state. Even then, I could only see my attempts ending in failure.

As of right now, the attack with the highest probability of killing him was Gungnir. And even that would take more than one shot.

I could’ve launched multiple god spears into the sky for as long as my mana would hold and then carpet-bombed Epona while he was sleeping. By my estimation, however, even that plan would’ve only had about a 20 percent chance of getting the job done.

Who is this idiot who thinks they’re going to be able to kill him?

“…Whatever, I’ll look for them.”

Perhaps Epona had some weak point I didn’t know about.

Despite being tasked with assassinating the hero, it now fell to me to protect him. How ironic.

Later that evening, we went to the workout room. I was currently performing a mock battle with Tarte.

Tarte accelerated using both her physical strengthening and her wind affinity.

I used the same trick. I was the one who taught her the tactic, so I could do it, too.

We were moving at about the same speed. There was a clear difference forming between us, however. It was one born of our eyes. Tarte was unable to register my actions clearly, but I could see everything she was doing perfectly. She didn’t have a chance.

The fight ended after about thirty seconds when I knocked her spear down.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to beat you, my lord…”

“No, you’re doing well. I have an unfair advantage.”

“Is it your eyes? …I’m jealous.”

“Tarte, do you want a pair of these eyes?”

I did think it best that Tarte had them, but it might not have been what she wanted.

“Of course. If I have those eyes, I can be a greater help to you, and most importantly, it’ll ensure that I can be with you forever.”

“If you truly want them, then I think it would be okay to give them to you. But you should know there is a small risk of blindness if the surgery fails. I want you to think about that before you make a decision.”

“I don’t need to think about it. I want them anyway. There’s no way you’ll fail, my lord, and even if you do, I’ll have no regrets.”

“…There’s no way I can let myself fail after hearing you say that. I can’t betray your trust.”

Tarte said she would have no regrets even if the operation failed. Whatever I did, didn’t want to be the cause of her losing her sight.

…That’s it! Once I find the assassin going after Epona, I can experiment on them until I’m satisfied I can safely perform the surgery. Anyone entrusted with the job of killing the hero must surely have been a powerful mage. I would kill them anyway, so there was no harm in getting some use out of them first.

“Hey, Lugh. I have a suggestion. When you do the procedure, what about taking it one eye at a time? If the first eye goes well, then you can move on to the next. That way, worst-case scenario, she’ll only go blind in one eye,” Dia suggested.

“Good idea. That’s what I’ll do,” I agreed.

“Lord Lugh, when are you going to do the surgery?” Tarte asked me, her eyes sparkling. This girl believed in me from the bottom of her heart.

“Please try not to think about it too much; it might not be until a month from now. I have some preparation I need to do first,” I replied.

If I can just capture the assassin, then I’ll be able to practice.

“I’m so excited… But are you sure it’s okay for me to have those eyes? They’re one of the Tuatha Dé clan’s most closely guarded secrets.”

“I don’t mind at all. You’re family, Tarte. And this isn’t just hypothetical. I have permission from Dad. He says I can do as I like as long as I take appropriate responsibility.”

Tarte had been serving me since we were little. She wasn’t some simple retainer.

“Huh?! Family? Responsibility? I, um, whaaa—?”

Tarte’s ears flushed red, and she looked down at the floor.

“…I didn’t mean it like that. And I definitely want to avoid a situation where I have to take responsibility.”

The responsibility I was talking about was how I’d have to kill Tarte if she betrayed me after I gave her the Tuatha Dé eyes.

“O-okay, I understand. I understand fully.”

She was adorable when she got riled up.

For a moment, I thought about becoming family in the way that Tarte imagined. It was a nice idea.

Our first week at school had passed without incident. Combat practice was beginning. The assassin after Epona hadn’t made a move yet.

We were currently performing one-on-one mock battles, with students being matched up based on their strength. Everyone was fighting with blunted weapons, and the use of magic was allowed.

Tarte’s match ended, and she exited the ring. She didn’t fight a servant, but rather the fifth-ranked student in the class, and beat her opponent handily.

“How did I do?”

“You handled the spear skillfully. You did make several mistakes, though. First…”

Tarte listened with a serious expression. Her ability to patiently listen to feedback and learn from it was her greatest weapon.

While I was talking to her, the match between Naoise, a skilled swordsman, and Finn, a young man from a long line of knights, began.

The entire class was entranced. Their match was a pure sword fight, which made it splendid to watch. Naoise won in the end, but it felt like it could’ve gone either way.

Next, my turn arrived.

Combat pairs were chosen based on each student’s fighting prowess. Naoise, Finn, Dia, Tarte, and all the other highest-ranking students had already had their turns.

This left only one possible person who could be my partner.

“Next, Epona Rhiannon and Lugh Tuatha Dé.”

Welp, it’s Epona and me.

This was as good an opportunity as I could’ve asked for to observe the hero’s strength firsthand—if I survived.

The commander of the Royal Order who had fought Epona during the exam was still bedridden. Despite receiving treatment from an elite healer, he still hadn’t recovered.

The professor chose me to face Epona because he thought anyone else in the class would suffer the same fate. It was high praise, in a way.

“Um, Lugh, let’s have a good match.”

“Yeah, let’s show the fruits of our training.”

“I’m going to be careful, so please try not to get hurt.”

“I’ll do my best.”

I gave the professor a look that said, “Are you really making me do this?” He just nodded in response.

“Are you two ready?”

“I’m good anytime,” I replied.

“I’m ready, too,” followed Epona.

I was using a blunted knife. I had no desire to use a sword. An accident was bound to happen if I didn’t use the sort of weapon I was most comfortable with.

The professor raised his hand.

I immediately began to pour mana into my eyes. If I didn’t power up my Tuatha Dé eyes to their limit—actually, past their limit—I wouldn’t even be able to keep track of Epona’s shadow. A sharp pain ran through my body due to the excessive strengthening, but I maintained this state by using Rapid Recovery to heal myself forcibly.

“Begin!”

Epona disappeared immediately. This was exactly what’d happened against the commander of the Royal Order.

The difference was that I had Tuatha Dé eyes.

I could follow Epona, but only barely. I stepped to the side and left my knife floating in the air. If I tried to attack the hero while still holding my weapon, my arm would probably break.

The ring cracked as Epona charged at me. My knife was blasted away faster than a speeding bullet, piercing a seat in the stands. I’d only barely managed to dodge Epona’s attack, but I was knocked back about half a meter from the rush of air.

It was only barely visible, but a bruise formed on Epona’s arm from hitting the knife.

The knife should have inflicted massive damage upon impact at that speed, but the hero’s skin was unbelievably tough.

“…You dodged it. You evaded my attack. Just as I’d hoped, you’re not going to get hurt.”

Epona laughed. It was an innocent, joyful laugh from the bottom of his heart.

He then looked at me.

All right, I dodged his first attack, but what will he do next?

This may have been a practice bout, but my life was on the line nonetheless. Even so, I wanted to keep going.

Chapter 10 | The Assassin Gains the Hero’s Confidence

After I avoided Epona’s first attack, I glanced at the professor. Sure enough, that wasn’t enough for him to call the match.

This mock battle was only going to end when a hit connected. Evidently, my knife bruising Epona’s arm wasn’t enough. Things would’ve completed painlessly if that had counted.

“Here I come!”

Epona charged at me with his next attack, his face flushed red with excitement. He seemed to be enjoying this fight. I was surprised. I didn’t think he had that kind of personality.

Epona’s greatest weapon was his ridiculous physical strength. That alone overwhelmed all the skills I’d spent years building up.

He wasn’t without weakness, however. His preparatory movements for each attack were exaggerated and obvious, making it very easy to tell where he was aiming. He was also unskilled at moving his body, so it took him a bit to transition from one attack to the next.

Simply put, his strikes were too basic.

The more skilled a fighter you were, the more you realized that fights didn’t always go as you expected. For that reason, you had to become able to read your opponent’s moves, use feints, and adjust your movement throughout the fight.

Epona did none of that. The windup on everything he did was excessive, and every one of his movements betrayed his intent.

I dodged a second and third attack, getting more used to his pattern each time. Seeing the hero’s speed and bad habits was incredibly valuable, and I was beginning to notice a few weak points.

The hero’s physical ability defied all norms, and his ability to see objects in motion was also superhuman. But on that latter point, my Tuatha Dé eyes were even better. That was an important discovery. Unfortunately, such information was completely useless if I couldn’t survive our sparring match.

“This is amazing! Why can’t I hit you? You’re slower than me!” Epona exclaimed.

My head felt like it was going to split. My brain was crying out from overuse. I’d only been able to evade because of how hard I was pushing myself. I wasn’t going to be able to maintain this for much longer.

Every time I dodged a lethal attack, I erupted in sweat and felt like my life span was shortening.

Exhaustion was setting in. Rapid Recovery restored my stamina and mana, but its effect didn’t replenish mental energy or concentration.

Even so, I fought to maintain my composure. Hasty choices weren’t going to make the situation any better. They’d only provide Epona with a window to strike.

“What are you doing? You have to attack, Lugh. If you don’t, then how could we even call this training?!”

I know that. But the moment I devote any of my energy to offense, my evasion will slip. If even a single blow connected, it could mean serious injury for me, regardless of how I defended against it. My only option was not to get hit at all.

I just have to last a little longer. My eyes were adjusting, and I’d memorized Epona’s rhythm, habits, and attack pattern.

Epona was getting irritated. Each of his swings was getting more aggressive.

“Why…can’t…I…hit…you?!”

His frustration was causing him to try to move even faster and force more power into his attacks. His motions were becoming more monotonous as a result.

Now that I’d pushed Epona to such a point, he was turning to his most effective attack. It was the same one he’d used to defeat the commander of the Royal Order: a simple step forward and uppercut.

Instead of reading his preparatory motion as I’d been doing, I made my move as soon as Epona entered his attack motion.

I saw this strike coming. Actually, that’s not the most accurate way to put it. I’d forced Epona into this action. Understanding your opponent’s habits and rhythm enabled you to guide their actions.

If I hadn’t spent so long dodging the hero and reading his movements, I would never have been able to create the timing needed for a counter. That this kind of strategy could beat Epona was his greatest weakness.

…If you were to use this same tactic against an opponent of decent ability, they would’ve simply switched to a different pattern. Epona didn’t have the experience or levelheadedness to do that. Even though I moved before he’d even started his attack, he rushed recklessly at me, swinging his fist upward.

I barely managed to remain outside the range of his fist, waited for his arm to extend, and then responded. At the beginning of the match, I’d only been able to get Epona to punch one of my knives, but this time, I brought my weapon down on him.

The blade made a dull breaking sound, and I was immediately blasted out of the ring from the air pressure of Epona’s attack.

Unable to angle myself for a graceful landing, I hit the ground multiple times before I came to a stop.

…I guess this is what’ll happen if I try to hit the hero head-on. I got blown out of the ring despite being the one to land the blow. It was absurd.

“Lugh wins!”

The professor had watched closely and noticed that I’d scored a valid strike before I’d gone flying, so he awarded me the victory.

“Lord Lugh, that was incredible!” Tarte praised.

“Wow, I can’t believe you were able to defeat the hero!” Dia agreed.

“I already thought very highly of him, but even I didn’t expect this. Finn, do you feel like you could do what he just did?” Naoise asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t have confidence in my ability to dodge Epona’s attacks, much less land a counter… Lugh Tuatha Dé has incredible vision and the ability to read his opponent. I hate to admit this, but I would have no chance of beating the hero, and I don’t think I could beat Lugh, either. What about you, Naoise?”

“I agree. That’s why I want him. With you and him at my side, I could accomplish anything.”

My classmates were chatting excitedly about my triumph.

…I somehow managed to win while concealing what exactly had enabled my victory. My Tuatha Dé eyes enhanced my ability to see objects in motion, but that wasn’t something an observer could’ve noticed at a distance.

I tried to get up and failed.

My breathing was ragged and my legs were shaking. Sweat had soaked me through. The fight had taken more out of me than I’d expected. I was exhausted more mentally than physically, however.

Just thinking about what would have happened if that had been a real battle was horrifying.

I was utterly spent, and the blow that won me the match had ended up cracking a bone in my arm. All Epona had to show for it was a light bruise on his forehead. I would have died if he’d grazed me with a single fist, but my counter barely damaged him at all. It was infuriating.

I have to kill him?

Epona walked over to me and held out a hand. I grabbed it, and he pulled me up.

“I’m glad I met you, Lugh. I want to fight with you again,” Epona said.

With those words, my fear that he enjoyed fighting grew. An interest in fighting explained why Epona had said something as vaguely dangerous as, “It seems like you won’t get hurt.”

“I’m surprised. I didn’t take you for the type who enjoys combat,” I replied.

“It’s not that I like it. I have to get stronger because I’m the hero and because I promised Mireille. I need to train as much as I can to fulfill that promise, but everyone I fight gets hurt. I want to become stronger, but I can’t.”

There weren’t many people who could go toe to toe with Epona and survive, even if it was only a practice match.

“I’ve been anxious that I’m not going to be strong enough to defeat the demons. But because I can trust that you won’t get hurt, Lugh, I can properly train. I won’t even have to hold back when we practice. I can finally become stronger. So can you spar with me again sometime? You’re all I have, Lugh!”

Epona’s movements were probably so unskilled because he’d never been able to train correctly. There were many things you could only learn through actual battle experience, but Epona had never had anyone capable of showing him the way.

Evidently, he didn’t have any particular love of violence, but felt obligated to improve because he was the hero. He’d also mentioned a vow to some person named Mireille. If I accepted Epona’s request, then I’d become an irreplaceable presence in his life, and we’d develop a deep bond.

Unfortunately, it also meant risking my life. If I did this kind of thing repeatedly, my body wasn’t going to last. What other choice did I have, though?

“I’d be glad to. I have plenty I can gain from it, too.”

There was no doubt I would also get stronger through these life-threatening battles.

I’d be able to study the hero up close, and I’d grow stronger and gain his trust in the process. Such boons were worth risking my life.

“Okay, then I’ll ask the professor to make you my opponent for all my mock battles!” Epona declared.

“Ha-ha-ha, that would be an honor. But it would be unfair to hog all the chances to fight the hero to myself. You all want to try fighting Epona, too, right?”

I looked to my classmates for help, but they all quickly turned away. That included Tarte and Dia. They all understood that even sparring with Epona was a life-and-death struggle.

“Looks like no one has a problem with it. I won’t lose next time!” Epona said happily.

And just like that, I was going to be struggling for survival daily. I needed to mentally prepare myself for the likelihood of serious injury. I’d have to take great care to avoid any permanent damage.

Later that day, after classes ended, Epona begged me to help him with all the things he didn’t understand. After that, I conducted Dia and Tarte’s training and then finally returned to the apartment.

As I tutored Epona, I got the feeling he was relaxing more and more around me. Accepting his request had definitely been the right call.

After returning to my room, I sent a request to investigate the person the hero referred to as Mireille. My assassin’s instinct was telling me they were the hero’s biggest weakness. After that, I had Tarte undress, checked her body’s condition, and then decided on her future training regimen.

A knock came at the door.

I looked at Tarte, and she hurriedly dressed herself and opened the door.

It was a boy with blond hair.

“Good evening, Lugh. You were marvelous today. I brought you a snack to thank you for putting on such a dazzling performance.”

“Naoise. I’m exhausted, so would you mind leaving?”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha, come now, you don’t need to treat me like that. I come with more than just this little gift. I have information you’ve been looking for.”

“Is it about Epona?”

“That’s right. She has a secret.”

“…You said ‘she.’ So Epona is a girl.”

Epona had been reported to be a boy and had entered the academy under that guise as well.

“You sound like you’ve been suspecting as much for a while,” Naoise deduced.

“Epona’s clothes disguise it, but her skeletal structure is female. Your interactions with her also gave it away. I’ve been trying to get close to Epona as a friend and equal, but you’ve been approaching Epona romantically,” I stated.

“Ha-ha-ha, so you noticed that. Love would be the easiest way to get in her good graces. All you have to do with girls like her is show a little kindness, and they’ll fall for you instantly.”

Tarte glared at Naoise after he said that. She had a pure heart and didn’t appreciate hearing that kind of thing.

“Tarte, darling, don’t look at me like that. I’m not just toying with her. Any way I can win over the hero will get me closer to my goal. If we form a real romantic relationship, I’ll stay with her until the end and love her with all my heart. I’m serious about that, even if I have an ulterior motive,” assured Naoise.

“Really?” Tarte remained dubious.

“Am I correct to assume the reason you’re sharing this with me is that your advances have proven difficult?” I probed.

“That’s exactly right. You seem to have stolen her heart with your performance earlier… My plan would still be on if I could prove to her that I can also safely fight her. Unfortunately, I am not capable of that. I don’t know how you were able to deal with her speed,” Naoise admitted.

“Trust me, it wasn’t easy,” I answered.

“In any case, that will make romance difficult for me, so I’ve decided I should get close to her as your friend. This means the closer your relationship is with her, the better. Now, for the main topic. As for why she was raised as a boy…”

I listened carefully to Naoise’s explanation. It turned out to be largely what I’d expected. There were few reasons to raise a noble-born girl as male.

“Thank you, Naoise. I think I’ll be able to use this to get even closer to her,” I stated.

“I’m glad I could be of help. All right, I’m leaving. This is probably too forward of me, but I recommend you don’t get too familiar with her.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Unlike you, I don’t plan on approaching Epona romantically.”

Keeping some amount of distance was probably the best decision. I didn’t want the hero to get overly attached.

Tarte was visibly relieved after I’d said I didn’t intend to court Epona. Not wanting to make her or Dia sad was one reason I didn’t like the idea.

“Naoise, can I ask a favor? We have tomorrow off. I have something I need to take care of and won’t be at the academy. Can you watch Epona for me?” I requested.

“You want me to keep an eye on her? Sure. I don’t feel the slightest need to keep that promise, but I’ll do it… In exchange, can I borrow Tarte for a day? I want to take her out for a date.”

“If that’s your condition for accepting the request, then no,” I responded without hesitation. I would never use Tarte that way.

“That’s disappointing. Let’s pretend I was joking. Please don’t be mad at me. I only mentioned that because I genuinely like Tarte. All right, I’ll settle for you owing me one. I’m heading out.” With that, Naoise made to leave.

“Thanks. Sorry for the imposition,” I said.

My asking Naoise to watch Epona had possibly revealed more than I would’ve liked.

Under my dad’s orders, I was cooperating with the school to deal with an assassin aiming for Epona’s life. This was possible because the duke who knew the secret of House Tuatha Dé made certain preparations for us. The academy had likely told Naoise about things as well.

“Lord Lugh, um, thank you for that… I would have gone if you told me to. But I would have hated it, so I’m very happy you refused him for me,” Tarte said shyly.

“Of course. You’re an important member of our family, Tarte.”

“…! I’ll work even harder for you from now on, my lord!”

Tarte looked at me with fire in her eyes. I felt a little awkward, so I looked away and changed the subject.

“By the way, where is Dia? I haven’t seen her since training,” I mentioned.

“She said she had something she wanted to check at the library. After practice, she changed and went straight there.”

“The library here is awe-inspiring. Okay, that’s fine. I’ll tell her later. I have a request for you, Tarte. Can you make a boxed lunch for our day off tomorrow? I’m thinking about going out for a picnic.”

“Ah, that sounds nice. I’ll make something special for us.”

The innocuous outing would help Tarte and Dia de-stress while also enabling me to test the new, deadly technique I’d been working on. I hoped to also use the picnic as a method to trap the assassin after Epona.

The site of our little getaway was a secluded spot a short distance from a major road. There, I’d be able to make as much noise as I pleased without any unwanted attention.

Chapter 11 | The Assassin Tests a Killing Move

Dia, Tarte, and I were headed off on our excursion. Tarte was walking cheerfully while carrying a basket full of food. She must have been looking forward to this, as she had woken up very early to prepare our lunch.

Conversely, Dia was in the middle of an exhausted yawn.

“You really stayed up late last night,” I observed.

“Yeah, but I was finally able to finish it. I found the final piece I needed in a book I borrowed from the library… I’m so tired,” Dia replied.

“Is this for a new spell?” I asked.

“Yeah. One you’ve been asking for. I’ve been working on complex and powerful spells for a while, but I’ve also been toying with the idea of creating magic that prioritizes speed. I compressed information as much as I could to create the shortest formulas possible. They aren’t powerful, and they’re pretty inaccurate, but they’re quite quick and easy to use,” Dia explained.

“That sounds helpful. Magic can be difficult to use in combat,” I said.

When casting a spell, you needed to utter an incantation. Finding time to do that when someone was trying to kill you could be difficult. Outside of Wind Armor, there weren’t many spells that were usable in a direct fight.

Wind Armor was one of Tarte’s favorite bits of magic to use. The defensive enchantment would last for a while, so you could cast it before you ever engaged an enemy. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with most other spells. Typically, sorcerers worked on incantations while a vanguard of infantry protected them.

I wanted to see if something could be done about that drawback, though. As such, Dia and I had been conducting some research. These shortened spells were the result.

I analyzed Dia’s formula. The way she was able to compress the recipe down to such a small size was nothing short of art. She had such an incredible sense for magic. I never would’ve come up with something this brilliant.

“This is a good formula. I’ll go ahead and use Spell Weaver to make it a new spell,” I said.

“Hmm-hmm, it’s only three lines. It shouldn’t take more than a second to cast,” Dia responded.

“For sure.”

Dia and I regularly exercised our tongues to perform incantations at high speeds, and as such, we were capable of chanting much faster than the average person. A three-line recitation would only take us a single second. Perhaps even less.

“It’s too bad it’s a fire spell. That means I can’t use it,” Tarte admitted with dejection.

“You have Wind Armor, Tarte. Isn’t that good enough?” I asked.

“I can use that in combat if I whisper the incantation beforehand, but after it wears off, I have no way of casting it again.”

She had a point. Wind Armor was a powerful spell, and its necessary chant was proportionally long.

Tarte looked at Dia pleadingly.

“Okay fine, I’ll make a wind formula for you. But in exchange, you have to bake another cake… I don’t know how your cakes end up so delicious despite not using any expensive ingredients. You’re not any more skilled than my pastry chef,” said Dia.

“Um, maybe it’s because I bake them with love?” Tarte posited.

“Why do you sound so unsure of that?” Dia questioned. She and Tarte both laughed. “Anyway, this mountain makes for a nice stroll. It’s perfect for a picnic.”

“Yes, the roads are maintained very well,” agreed Tarte.

“That’s because the army often marches through this area. It’s taken good care of,” I explained.

Climbing an undeveloped mountain was very difficult. I was grateful we had a clear path to follow.

“It gets a bit rough up ahead,” I cautioned. “People don’t often go beyond this point. There’s a good spot through this forest trail.”

“So that’s why you said I shouldn’t wear my servant clothes. If I were wearing that outfit, my skirt would get caught on everything.”

“Yeah. What we’ve got on now is much easier to move in.”

The three of us were wearing Tuatha Dé combat clothes with robes over them.

The garb didn’t bare much skin, and it hugged tightly to the body. It was the perfect sort of thing to wear when hiking. After folding up our robes, we ventured into the forest.

I led, cutting down obtrusive branches along the way, and we arrived at our destination before long.

“Wow, that riverbed is so pretty. This place is spacious, and the sound of the water is relaxing,” Tarte remarked.

“We can make as much noise as we want here,” Dia observed.

“Yeah, that’s why I chose it. How about we eat first?” I said.

“Okay, I’ll take out the food.” Tarte spread out a sheet and opened the basket.

Our entrée was a large meat pie. When we cut into it, ample, creamy meat sauce with ground beef spilled out. It looked delicious.

Lunch had ended. Tarte’s cooking had been just as tasty as it had looked.

“Oh yeah, Lugh. Is it okay that you’re not watching her today?”

Dia was talking about Epona. I’d told both her and Tarte about the assassin.

“You saw our mock battle, right? There’s no way anyone is even capable of killing her. Also, I asked Naoise to look after her. Epona doesn’t really need a protector, but my leaving the academy today is actually a trap. If all goes according to plan, I’ll have the assassin.”

I’d been investigating ever since I’d learned that someone was aiming for Epona’s life. I’d managed to catch traces of the assassin’s presence here and there, but they’d seemed content to observe from a distance thus far. They were cautious. Hopefully, by presenting them with an opportunity, I could lure them into pouncing.

“If you’re sure you’ve thought it all out, then I guess that’s okay,” Dia said.

“Of course.”

As I’d already made clear, there was no reason to think Epona would die.

“All right, let’s get started. I wrote down that spell, Dia. Go ahead and try to use it,” I instructed.

“Okay. This is a rapid-fire spell that can be used from point-blank range… Watch this.”

Dia spoke the incantation.

“Instant Flame!”

Fire burst forth less than a second after she began chanting. The blaze was extremely hot thanks to the powerful mana she’d cast it with. The heat was easily intense enough to kill.

“Okay, so it just shoots a jet of fire. It diffuses quickly, though, because the flames don’t converge, but you can use it almost immediately. Its force also increases the more mana you use,” explained Dia.

“It looks convenient. You could use it from any position,” I remarked.

It was perfect for when you’d lost your balance in a sword fight and didn’t have time to avoid the next oncoming attack. No opponent would expect such a quick spell. There was no limit to the kind of situations you could use it in, provided your opponent was unaware of the maneuver, of course.

“You’ve created something exceedingly useful, Dia,” I complimented.

I tested Instant Flame for myself. Not only was it simple to utilize, but it could also create quite the blaze if you put all your mana into it. While its short range was a definite hindrance, the spell’s versatility more than made up for that.

“Seeing you both use it makes me want magic like that even more. If this were a wind spell, I’d be able to blow away my opponent, gather myself, and then accelerate instantly. It would be even more useful than fire,” Tarte stated.

I agreed with her. While a wind version would share some overlap with Wind Armor, the instant casting time would make a huge difference.

“All right, I’ll make you a wind one. I won’t be able to use it, but it sounds like it would serve you and Lugh well,” Dia acknowledged. “That’s all I have to reveal today. You’re up next, Lugh.”

“Okay. Time to unveil a new killing move… I’ve thought a lot about how to make use of my Leather Crane Bag. In the end, I kept coming back to the idea that it lets me carry around as many weapons as I want. As an example, think about Gun Strike. Forming the gun, loading it with bullets, and casting the explosion spell takes a long time,” I began.

“Yeah, if you use that bag, you can carry around a pre-prepared gun. That will cut down on the casting time. That’s kinda boring for you, though,” Dia said.

“If that were all, it would be. But like I said, I can carry as many weapons as I want. Which means I can do this.”

I severed the mana flowing into the magic bag. The alternate space within the bag immediately collapsed, and all of the contents burst out at once.

What erupted out of the bag were twenty guns as large as tank cannons, the kind I used not for Gun Strike, but Cannon Strike. If I didn’t have to worry about each one’s size, I could make them as big and powerful as I wanted. By increasing the number of them, I could also crank up the force of the attack.

Each barrel was loaded with bullets and shards of Fahr Stones. I’d adjusted the stones’ size because the cannon cylinders weren’t able to handle full-size ones. Every Fahr Stone was filled to the brim with mana and rang with the sound that signaled they were about to explode.

I then finished the incantation I’d been performing.

“Arrange!”

Using a magnetic force field, I shifted the direction of all twenty cannons. They all began to rumble, fixed in place in midair. Dia and Tarte knew by now to cover their ears and open their mouths.

“Cannon Volley!”

All of the weapons discharged simultaneously, reducing the shore by the river to ash. A single Cannon Strike couldn’t compare to this level of destruction.

It was a successful test.

I had made one miscalculation, however. After the cannons fired in midair, the recoil proved too much for them to stay in place, and they were all sent flying backward.

The attack was definitely too dangerous to use in a situation where there were allies behind me. I needed to either set the cannons in the ground or somehow configure them to fire without any recoil. That was a problem for later, however.

“This is the killing move I’ve devised by experimenting with the Leather Crane Bag. With it, I can fire dozens of Cannon Strikes at the same time. I call it Cannon Volley,” I said.

It was a bombardment of shots; every one of them held the power of a tank behind it. Best of all, it hardly took any time to cast. It was a worthy addition to my deadly arsenal.

“What the hell are you planning on using this for?! You wouldn’t need this much firepower to kill a dragon!” Dia exclaimed.

“It really doesn’t seem to be a spell meant for people,” Tarte added.

“If I ever end up having to fight the hero, even this wouldn’t be enough to kill her. I’d like to use Gungnir, but that’s not reliable in a fight. I came up with this as another option.”

My quest for a powerful spell that was still usable in combat had led me to Cannon Volley.

“This is going too far!” Dia insisted.

“Like I said, even this isn’t strong enough… I fought her, so I know,” I explained.

The hero was stupidly powerful.

“All right, I’m done with testing my new killing move. Let’s move on to practice. We haven’t had a wide field like this to use in a long time. Show me the fruits of your labors.”

“Sounds good. I’ll show you how much I’ve grown,” declared Dia.

“I’m still getting stronger, too!” Tarte asserted.

I gave them both a thorough training session. Perhaps because of the good food and open space, the workout seemed to go better than usual. By the end, Dia was so exhausted, I had to carry her back to the academy.

“Lord Lugh, today was a lot of fun,” Tarte said.

“Yeah, it was. Spending time outside is fun,” I replied.

The day had made for a good break from the normal.

I have to check on my trap when I get back. Catching that assassin was the one thing that could make the day better.

Chapter 12 | The Assassin Assassinates an Assassin

I slipped out of my apartment in the middle of the night. I was going to check on the status of the ploy I’d set.

Ever since I’d heard from my dad that there was an assassin going after Epona, I’d been staying near her as much as possible to observe her surroundings. While doing so, I’d managed to detect the hired killer’s presence a few times.

They were cautious and decently skilled, however. Not once had they presented me with a chance to catch them.

So I’d changed my strategy. If I couldn’t apprehend the assassin, I would instead draw them out. The plan was to fabricate a situation that convinced them to act.

To create that scenario, I’d been behaving like I was Epona’s secret guard. However, I moved in a way that would betray that supposed identity to those skilled enough.

Humans were strange in that they had a tendency not to believe the information they heard from other people, but then unconditionally accept anything they discovered themselves. My current plan seized upon the advantage of that phenomenon. I wanted the assassin to notice me and think of me as the hero’s bodyguard. If they did, they’d undoubtedly try to go after Epona when I wasn’t around.

I made sure the killer knew I was absent today by having Naoise watch Epona in my place. Leaving Epona completely unprotected risked arousing suspicion on whether I actually was defending her.

Naoise, however, as skilled a sword fighter as he was, knew nothing of the methods of assassins and had no experience safeguarding another. Naoise would definitely give the killer a chance to strike, and I trusted they would have the skill to take advantage.

With me out of the picture, the assassin had no reason not to strike, provided they could get past Naoise.

I snuck into Epona’s room from above the ceiling. There were only so many advantageous positions from which to kill covertly, and this was the one I’d picked. If the enemy was going to try for Epona’s life, they were already hiding in a similar location.

…I’ve got them. They were nearby. My intention that night wasn’t to stop a murder but to successfully mark the would-be killer.

They must have infiltrated the apartment only to withdraw after deciding they couldn’t get the job done with their current equipment. Epona does look helpless, though.

Epona was sound asleep. Even though I, an assassin, was just a few feet away. She wasn’t remotely aware of my presence. A Cannon Strike at this distance wouldn’t leave so much as a scratch on her, however. Even Cannon Volley wasn’t enough to end the hero.

All right, time to go. My trap was successful.

…Tomorrow I should be able to pinpoint the assassin.

The next morning, I left for the academy as usual. Using my Tuatha Dé eyes, I observed everyone I walked past on the way to class to search for the mark I had placed on the assassin yesterday.

It was highly likely that the killer was a member of the faculty.

The security at school was tight. Infiltrating it from the outside was extremely difficult. That much went without saying, though. Every noble family in Alvan had a child at the academy.

“Lord Lugh, you’ve been looking around restlessly today. Is something wrong?” Tarte asked.

“Wow, you noticed that?”

I was surprised. As Tarte said, I was eyeing my surroundings. I didn’t think I was doing anything that betrayed my motives, however. I was employing the full scope of my vision without looking at anything directly. To other people, I should’ve appeared as I always had.

“I just had a feeling. Your mood felt a little different,” Tarte stated.

“I see. You’re a smart girl.”

I patted Tarte on the head, and her eyes narrowed happily.

As an assassin, there was nothing more important than being highly aware of your environs. Failing to pick up on small signals could mean death.

“Hey, how come Tarte gets all the praise? Guess I need to try harder,” Dia grumbled.

“I just commended you yesterday for that spell, right?” I reminded.

“That’s entirely different.” Dia puffed out her cheeks. It was adorable when she got competitive.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem as though the assassin was in my class. That came as a relief. I didn’t want to have to kill a classmate I’d formed a bond with.

After class, I made an excuse to go to Professor Dune’s office. He was clean, too.

For lunch, Dia, Tarte, and I went to the dining hall instead of the courtyard like we usually did. It afforded me a much better opportunity to observe students. Tarte and Dia remained oblivious to my motive and merely enjoyed the food.

“This is so good… I’m surprised,” said Tarte.

“It’s really expensive, though,” added Dia.

“That’s because they use good ingredients,” I commented.

Our meals really were delicious. Tarte’s cooking usually kept me away from the dining hall, but I didn’t think sampling the academy’s luxurious cuisine once in a while was all that bad. The quality of the dishes couldn’t be denied. Dia was correct when she’d said they were expensive, however. Unlike with breakfast and dinner, you had to pay for lunch out of your pocket. The cost was pretty high for a lowly baron’s son.

“It’s more than just good ingredients. The preparation is excellent, too. The chicken in this stew is incredible—its flavor has dissolved into the broth, but it’s still juicy and delicious. It’s like magic,” Tarte observed keenly.

She was so fired up about the cooking that she looked ready to rush into the kitchen and ask for the recipe. Ambition really was one of Tarte’s best traits.

While admiring Tarte, I looked around the dining hall.

There you are.

The trap I’d placed was a special kind of powder coating. I’d left a bit of the stuff in every conceivable place an assassin might’ve entered Epona’s room from.

The dust was a gray-white substance that was nearly microscopic. A person couldn’t notice it sticking to them. Water wouldn’t wash it away, either. To my Tuatha Dé eyes, it glowed a bright blue.

“Wow, it’s him.”

The assassin was a marquis’s son who’d only just barely made it into Class A.

I felt a sense of undeniable appreciation for my opponent.

I’d known this guy to be skilled. With his ability, he could’ve made it into Class S. Like a true professional, however, he intentionally entered at a lower rank so he wouldn’t stand out. He was even wise enough to choose Class A so that he’d have a room to himself and maintain his distance from others.

I had intentionally entered Class S to be as close to Epona as possible to search for her weak points, but trying to keep your distance and not stand out was the more straightforward and more common approach for a hired killer.

However, the fact that he took my bait so readily demonstrated a lack of self-restraint.

“Oh no, it looks like Lord Lugh is enjoying the dining hall food, too. But I won’t lose! I’ll make something even better than this!”

Tarte mistakenly took my relaxed facial expression to mean I was enjoying my meal.

“Lugh, I think we can count on a special dinner tonight,” Dia quipped.

“Yeah, she’s got that look in her eyes,” I replied.

Dia and I both looked at Tarte and smiled.

Since Tarte was going to put a lot of effort into our dinner, I decided to take care of my job afterward.

Once classes had finished, I met with the headmaster and a few others. The academy was going to be losing a student, so specific preparations needed to be made.

After much discussion, we decided the cover story would be that the target couldn’t take the school’s strict lifestyle and ran off. Evidence of his escape had already been fabricated, including cutting part of the fence.

The headmaster would tell the guards to provide eyewitness testimony of the assassin’s flight. As an extra precaution, some fabric was to be placed on the fence to make it look like the boy’s uniform tore as he was running. The hero was paramount, so the academy spared no expense.

Later that night, I donned a disguise and snuck into the Class A dorm. It didn’t take any clever maneuvers. I simply walked through the front door while everyone was sleeping and headed straight for the assassin’s room. It was late enough that no one was outside their rooms and the lights were all out.

Silent as a ghost, I used the key the headmaster had given me to enter the assassin’s room.

I checked to see that my target was sleeping and then threw a knife. I used my Tuatha Dé eyes to observe his mana capacity and adjusted the attack accordingly.

The knife pierced his comforter and plunged deep into his body. Blood spread from the wound, but the young man didn’t even scream.

That was because the edge of my weapon had been coated with a neurotoxin that took immediate effect. It rendered one unable even to lift a finger once it entered the body. Not only did this keep a victim from screaming, it also prevented suicide.

There was bewilderment on the assassin’s face as he looked at me. He probably hadn’t expected Epona’s guard to make such a direct move.

He wasn’t good enough. He lacked the wariness required of his profession.

“Sorry about this. I can’t let you get in the way of my job. It’s meaningless at this point, but I’m going to give you a piece of advice. As an assassin, you always have to assume you are being hunted… Though to be fair, I have made the same mistake before.”

I knocked him unconscious, stopped his bleeding, stuffed him and his bloodied sheets into a bag, and slung him over my shoulder.

Just as when I’d entered the dormitory, I simply walked down the empty hallways. I’d memorized the guard’s route and timing, so there was no risk of being spotted.

My methods had been straightforward this time, and less complicated procedures meant a higher success rate. An assassination should only be as intricate as the situation demanded.

…Now that this is done, I can carry him to my hideout.

I’d prepared a secret location in preparation for this sort of thing. It was a place where I could make as much noise as I wanted without attracting any attention. I needed to get my captive to give me his employer’s name and the motive for wanting Epona dead.

His usefulness didn’t end there, of course. I’d finally gotten hold of a mage. I planned to use him as practice for the surgical implantation of Tuatha Dé eyes. Tarte wanted the surgery, and I needed to be confident I could do it safely.

This is going to be a busy night. It might be tough to stay awake in class tomorrow.

Chapter 13 | The Assassin Performs Surgery

We were taking a written exam in class today. Once I finished all the problems, I fell deep into thought.

It had been a few days since I assassinated the assassin.

…I didn’t get much information out of him. Through torture, I learned the mastermind was a member of the noble faction. I’d reported that finding to both my dad and the headmaster.

It was a huge relief it wasn’t a royal who’d put the hit out on the hero. House Tuatha Dé was part of the royal faction, and we couldn’t afford any internal conflicts. If you looked at the big picture, though, the very existence of such cells spoke to infighting.

I had also learned why they were going after Epona. In a sense, it was a very respectable reason.

Anyway, it’s finally time.

I was off to perform Tarte’s surgery tonight. I’d had enough practice, and we conveniently had a few days of vacation beginning the following day.

Tarte was going to have to wear eyepatches for a couple of days, so conducting the procedure on the night before a stint of vacation was the best time.

“Your time is up. I’m now going to collect your answer sheets.”

Professor Dune collected our exams. Shortly afterward, the bell rang, announcing the end of the lesson.

Dia and Tarte rushed over to me, followed by one more person who’d made a habit of following us around lately.

“Lugh, I did really well on the test this time. It was all thanks to our study group,” Epona said.

She’d entered this class significantly behind everyone else from a learning standpoint, so I’d had many opportunities to teach her how to study. We were meeting for study sessions frequently, but because trying to work out our schedule every time we met was time-consuming, we’d decided to establish a regular time to meet as a group.

Even Naoise and Finn had joined our meetings.

“You’ve got the basics down. If you keep going at this pace, half a year from now, you won’t need our help at all,” I praised.

“I’m gonna keep working hard. I can’t let myself fall behind,” Epona declared.

“That’s the spirit,” I said.

This is getting scary. Just how quickly is she going to grow?

Epona made a face like she wanted to say something, so I urged her to spit it out.

“Why are you going this far for me?” she asked. “Is it because I’m the hero?” Her gaze was cast down at the floor.

Epona was poor with interpersonal relationships. Even though she depended on me, her lack of confidence made her feel unworthy. In turn, that caused her to grow distrustful.

“If I said that didn’t have anything to do with it, I’d be lying. But I swear that’s not the only reason. I help because I enjoy spending time with you. I’m a bad liar. I get in a terrible mood when I’m around people I don’t like.”

“Okay, that’s good to hear. I was worried you didn’t like doing things with me… Someday I’ll repay you for all you’ve done for me!” Epona promised.

I’d told similar falsehoods many times before, but such deception was necessary. Everything I did was to find Epona’s weak points. I had to work toward a future where I didn’t have to end her life.

“We need to get to the library, or they’ll cancel our reserved seats,” Tarte said, antsy about the time.

“Ah, you’re right. The library is very unforgiving. If you’re late by even a second, they’ll give your chair to someone else,” Dia affirmed.

“That’s true,” I replied. “But if the library doesn’t work, we can always just go to our apartment. We have plenty of space in there.”

““NO.””

Tarte and Dia shot my suggestion down in unison.

What’s wrong with using our apartment? Tarte kept the place very clean. There was nothing damning Epona could find, either. My work’s nature meant I owned things the hero shouldn’t see, but they were all well hidden.

“Ha-ha-ha, you’re completely under their thumbs, Lugh. But living under the iron grip of Dia and Tarte sounds quite pleasant. How about lending one of them to me?” Naoise joked.

“In your dreams. They’re both important partners to me,” I shot back.

After that declaration, Dia and Tarte’s faces flushed, and Epona muttered, “That’s so nice,” with a look like a child lusting after a toy.

“Anyway, let’s get going. We are truly going to be late if we don’t leave now,” I urged. Gathering my things, I stood to leave.

It was now the evening of our first day of vacation. I was facing Tarte, who had a bandage over one of her eyes.

Last night, I’d completed the safe implantation of a Tuatha Dé eye. In a few moments, we would know the result of my efforts.

“I’m nervous. I hope Tarte is still able to see out of that eye,” Dia admitted.

“She responded well enough to the surgery, but there is still a minimal chance it could’ve failed. I’m anxious, too,” I replied.

That other assassin had made for good practice. I’d only agreed to work on Tarte because I’d been entirely sure of myself.

“Ah, Lord Lugh, Lady Dia, it’s almost time.” Tarte pressed her hand against the patch over her right eye.

“I’m going to take the bandage off, but I want to say something first. Don’t worry about my feelings. I know you’ll be tempted to lie and say you can see even if you can’t,” I said.

“…You’re right…,” Tarte conceded.

That was just the sort of person Tarte was.

“At least promise me you won’t do that. If something feels off, I’ll be able to do something about it if you tell me early on. The longer you keep it from me, the more difficult it will be to correct any errors. Don’t worry about how trivial it might feel. If there’s anything that feels strange, tell me, okay?”

“Okay, I swear,” answered Tarte.

Tarte’s uncovered left eye shone brightly at me. I could see my reflection in it. Gently, I removed the bandages around her right eye.

The surgery had left her iris looking slightly darker. When Tuatha Dé underwent the procedure, their eyes turned gray. In Tarte’s case, however, the pigmentation simply dropped a bit.

Her right eye was out of focus because it’d been covered for so long.

“Everything looks so blurred, my lord.”

“That’s because your eye was bound for an entire day. Look into this.”

Using mana, I conjured up a little light. As Tarte stared into it, her eye began to focus.

“I can see properly now,” she said after a minute or two.

“Okay, moving on. Come over here.”

I took Tarte by the hand and led her to the window. After opening it, I pointed to a distant mountain.

“First, look at that mountain with your left eye,” I instructed.

“I can see it clearly,” Tarte answered.

“Good. Now, look at the large tree at the summit. How many branches are there extending from the trunk? Can you tell me what kinds of animals are on those branches?”

“I can’t see that. I can’t even see the tree.”

You would’ve needed binoculars to spot something that far away.

“Okay. Try doing the same with your right eye.”

“Wow, there really is a big tree. I can even tell how many branches there are. It’s faint, but I can’t believe I can see something that far away. There are sixteen branches. Sixteen! But the small animals on the branches are blurry, and I can’t tell what they are.”

“Try pouring mana into your eyes with physical strengthening. Be careful not to do it too quickly. Take it nice and slow.”

“Ah, I can see more now. There’s a squirrel, and also three birds I’ve never seen before, and hmm…there’s a longhorn beetle, too.”

Tarte could see a bug sitting on a branch that was kilometers away. Such was the power of Tuatha Dé eyes.

“That’s more than enough. Can you see anything else?” I asked.

“After strengthening my eye with mana, it now looks like there are glittering beads of light around you, Lady Dia, and around myself,” Tarte replied.

“What you’re seeing is mana. Try strengthening your eye a little more. If you do that, you’ll be able to see the mana that inhabits the world.”

“Ah, it’s beautiful. This must be the mana in the atmosphere—the power of the world. Wooow, it’s so pretty. Who knew everything was this beautiful? This is the way my lord sees things!”

With an ecstatic expression on her face, Tarte spun around, her skirt waving in the air.

“There’s no problem with your long-distance vision and your ability to see mana. Now for the real test. I’m going to check to test your ability to see objects in motion. Tarte, get as close to the wall as you can,” I commanded.

“Like this?”

“Perfect. I’m going to throw a ball, and I want you to catch it. Please pour even more mana into your eye. Make it much stronger.”

I took out one of my assassination tools. It looked like an unremarkable, white, fist-sized sphere. After scribbling something on the little orb, I held it up in the air.

I strengthened myself with mana. Tarte was able to see that, so she did the same thing and poured even more mana into her eye.

After confirming her physical strengthening, I raised the ball overhead and threw it. Because I’d empowered myself with mana, it rocketed from my fingers at over two hundred forty kilometers per hour.

Unsurprisingly, Tarte caught it.

Catching an object that was traveling so quickly was undoubtedly an impressive feat, but Tarte could do that even before the surgery. What I wanted to confirm was something else.

“Wow, we’re going to celebrate?! I’m so happy.”

“Good, you passed. You now have what I’ve always wanted to give you: an eye that can see at high speeds.”

“Huh? Lugh, Tarte, what do you mean by ‘celebrate’? No one said anything about that!” said Dia, her eyes darting back and forth between us.

“I wrote a message on the ball,” I explained.

“The words were plain as day to me, even though they were spinning,” Tarte added.

“Those Tuatha Dé eyes are amazing. I couldn’t see that at all,” Dia admitted.

It came as no surprise that Dia couldn’t read the ball. Not only had it been moving at over two hundred forty kilometers an hour, but it had also been rotating more than one hundred times a second. Reading a message on something in such a state was impossible for normal eyes.

“We should go to the royal capital. Things are expensive there, but it should be fine so long as we don’t visit too often,” I said.

The royal capital was a two-hour carriage ride from the academy. Prices were extremely high, but the city was rife with the highest-quality goods you could imagine, and there was no better place to experience luxury.

“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll make it a celebration for Tarte’s successful surgery. We should enjoy ourselves!” Dia exclaimed.

“I’m looking forward to this chance to study lots of different foods,” Tarte commented.

It would’ve been nice if Tarte could just forget about everything and have some simple fun for once, but I did like her earnest side.

“Lord Lugh, the successful procedure on my right eye means you’ll do surgery on my left eye, too, right?” asked Tarte.

“Yeah, but to be careful, we’re going to wait a few days. We’re back in school tomorrow anyway. We should do it the night before our next break. In the meantime, I want you to wear this.” I handed Tarte something I’d been keeping for this moment.

“It’s so small and clear. What is it?” she inquired.

“It’s a contact lens. If you wear that on your left eye, it will appear the same color as your right one. Everyone would be surprised if one of your eyes suddenly changed color,” I explained.

“Oh, that’s right. I’ll make sure to wear it,” Tarte agreed.

“Tomorrow’s training will probably be tough, but try your best to push through it. Once you get used to your new eyes, you’ll grow leagues stronger than you ever could’ve before,” I stated.

“Then I’ll be able to support you better than ever!” Tarte cheerily concluded.

“You’ll also be able to make better use of the wind magic I’ve made for you… I need some kind of secret weapon of my own. You two are going to leave me in the dust,” Dia observed.

I’d only just removed Tarte’s eye wrappings, so I had to take it easy on her today. Come tomorrow, however, I planned to subject her to combat training that would force her to adapt to her Tuatha Dé eye. All that extra sensory information was going to put a burden on her brain. Time and practice were required for her to get used to it.

“Don’t worry about trying not to spend too much money at the capital. I’ve prepared a special budget for this trip,” I said.

“Ooooh, then let’s get some really expensive alcohol,” Dia suggested excitedly.

“I’ll order some beef from a cow that was raised specifically for eating. I’ve heard rumors about such cattle, and I’ve wanted to try some at least once in my lifetime. I heard that meat from those cows is significantly softer and tastier than from those that do field work,” Tarte added.

They both knew that holding back when I’d asked them not to would come off as rude. It sounded like we were in for a fun day out.

I had to ensure we hadn’t been tailed. A lowly baron’s son indulging himself at high-class restaurants in the royal capital could start some unsavory rumors. I decided to take the girls to a nice eatery that offered isolated rooms to protect the customers’ privacy.

“Let’s all get changed before we leave. We’re going somewhere fancy, so we need to look the part,” I said.

“I’ll wear the dress you bought me in Milteu, my lord,” Tarte replied.

“Oh yeah, I have a dress that will captivate you, Lugh,” Dia answered.

I’m looking forward to seeing their dresses. I suppose I should change as well.

Interlude | The Assassin Makes the Hero a Promise

Our classes had ended early today. It seemed to me like everyone was having a hard time paying attention during lessons. Once every two months, a special event was held to help the students refuel. One of them was happening now.

I called out to Epona, who was looking noticeably unsure of what to do with herself.

“Have you decided what you’re going to buy today?” I inquired.

“I have no idea. I don’t know too much about the names of the stores and stuff like that. But I am really looking forward to going shopping. My hero’s salary is paying me well.”

Epona held up a leather coin pouch.

“It sounds like the Academy Market is going to be very lively. I’m sure you’ll find something that catches your eye,” I assured.

The Academy Market was the event meant to help students relax.

Our school was just north of the royal capital, which was the only option students had for recreation away from the academy. The trouble was that the city was expensive, no matter what you did. Only those chosen could live there, and the stores were tailored to the wealthiest of clientele.

That wasn’t an issue for those on the aristocracy’s upper end, but lesser nobles weren’t really capable of enjoying the capital to its fullest.

The Academy Market had been established to deal with that. The school reached out to various popular companies around the country and invited them to run market stalls on academy grounds for three days. Goods were set at the same prices as the main stores, so even less wealthy students could have a good time without worrying about travel costs. Many participating companies even provided limited items and debuted brand new products.

A lot of my peers could hardly contain their excitement, knowing that popular stores from throughout the Alvanian Kingdom and even some international vendors were going to attend.

“Is there anything you two want, Dia and Tarte?” I questioned.

“Nothing comes to mind for me, so I think I’m going to walk around first and see if anything catches my eye,” answered Tarte.

“Hmm, there’s nothing I want, so I’m going to head back to the dorm,” replied Dia.

That seemed like uncharacteristic behavior for Dia. She had always been the curious type. I would’ve thought she would be chomping at the bit for an opportunity like this.

As I pondered it further, I realized she’d been restless the past few days. Something was definitely off. I’d caught a glance of her counting her money this morning. It seemed likely that she already knew what she wanted to buy and didn’t want to tell us what it was.

I’m curious about whatever Dia is hiding, but I’ll leave it be for now.

“You all look like you’re having a fun little chat. Mind if I join in?” A blond young man was approaching us.

“Hey, Naoise. We’re talking about what we’re going to purchase at the Academy Market. I’m sure you don’t have any interest in this event,” I remarked.

He was a son of one of the four major dukedoms. He could afford to buy as much as he wanted, even in the royal capital. I’d also learned he regularly invited people to the royal capital to sway them into joining the little group he’d been building.

“What are you saying? I love the Academy Market. There are things money alone can’t buy. For example, the main attraction this time is a company called Natural You. Rumor is they’re going to unveil a new product here today. As a fan, I can’t overlook this opportunity,” explained Naoise.

“…You’re interested in Natural You?” I asked, somewhat surprised.

“Women aren’t the only people who use makeup. Their moisturizer has been a big help to me.”

It’s indeed best for men to moisturize as well, but I hadn’t been expecting him to say that.

As Naoise had said, the cosmetics brand I’d founded as Illig Balor, Natural You, was also running a stall during the school event. I was planning on heading over there later to pick up the report for the follow-up investigation I’d requested of Maha.

“Ah, it’s starting,” said Tarte. The announcement that the market was opening echoed throughout the school.

Everyone rushed as fast as possible to the plaza.

The Academy Market was available only to students on its first day. It would be open to the public on its remaining two days. That was why all the students were hurrying to buy things today. Once the event was available to outside customers, it would only get more challenging to find what you wanted.

“We should get moving, or all the good items will be gone,” I urged.

“Okay! Um, are you really okay not going, Lady Dia?” Tarte pressed.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” Dia answered.

“Let’s go, Tarte. We’ll bring home a present for you, Dia,” I said.

Dia didn’t want us around for her secret shopping. It seemed okay to let her do what she wanted this time.

Tarte and I dove into the swaths of teenagers.

Despite only having just begun, the Academy Market was in full swing.

“There are so many people here,” Tarte observed.

“Just about the entire school is attending,” I replied.

About two hundred students were at our school, but all the live-in faculty brought that number even higher. Because the academy also functioned as a stronghold, there were personnel here for that purpose as well.

Tarte opened a map that detailed the location of each shop’s stand. Every student had been given one before the event had begun. The pamphlet also provided simple descriptions for each participating company.

“There are so many famous stores. I don’t know where to begin. Why are all these famous stores going through the trouble of coming all the way here anyway?” asked Tarte.

“Good question. They won’t be making a profit from this. The academy allows them to set up the stands only on the condition that they set the prices at the same level as their main retail stores, after all… What these businesses are banking on is turning us into lasting customers and spreading word of mouth. Most of the students here are from noble families. Promoting to students is a good way to gain long-term customers,” I explained.

The cost of transport alone surely meant many businesses were taking a loss. In the eyes of a shrewd entrepreneur, however, that lost money was like paying for advertising.

Many companies undoubtedly had high hopes for those visitors who would arrive tomorrow and the next day, too. It was tough to gain permission to open a store in the royal capital, so any opportunity to sell to the city’s customers was valuable.

“That didn’t occur to me at all. Business is really complicated,” Tarte stated.

“It is. It’s a difficult world,” I responded.

“Ohhh, it sounds way too hard for me.”

To become a top-rate businessperson, you needed more than just work ethic. Mercantile acumen was also required. Without such things, you were doomed before you ever began. A proper eye for enterprise counted for a lot.

“Um, are you sure it’s okay for me to come with you two?” Epona asked.

“Of course. I don’t mind. You’re a classmate, and this will be more fun with company,” I assured.

“Yeah! This is the first time I’ve ever gone shopping with people like this,” Tarte added.

Together, the three of us made our way around the area and perused the stalls. There were tons of exciting products, but that was to be expected of such popular retailers.

If you were attentive, you could spot staff from all the stores peeking into rival stalls. In a way, that was another merit of the Academy Market—popular stores could learn from one another.

While stuffing ourselves with rare steamed sweets wrapped in transparent dough, Tarte, Epona, and I walked around to each stall, buying anything that interested us. Even just strolling around was enjoyable.

Tarte’s eyes lit up when we passed a particular stand. “Wow. This cloth is so beautiful, and such a light shade of pink. I wonder how they managed to dye it this color. This one is sky-blue!” she exclaimed.

“This color is Mireille’s…,” Epona muttered.

Tarte had stopped at a clothing store’s booth. It also sold raw materials.

“Yeah, you don’t see bright colors like this very often,” I remarked.

The fabrics were dyed pink and sky-blue. The vibrant colors themselves were the store’s flagship product. Their material was high quality, but producing textiles in such vivid colors was the bigger draw.

I recalled that the pink and blue dyes were specialty products only produced in an impoverished region of Alvan. After the pigments caught this company’s attention, they negotiated a contract that gave them exclusive use of the colorants, allowing the business to sell them on a large scale.

“This cloth is so lovely, and cheap, too! I know Lady Esri would be happy to get some as a gift,” Tarte commented.

My mom enjoyed making new outfits. Tarte was right in thinking she’d want such high-quality material.

“I’m taking care of the souvenirs, so you don’t have to worry about that. You just focus on what you want to buy,” I reminded.

“But she’s done so much for me,” protested Tarte.

“I actually want to get something for her, too. So yeah, you can pick it out, and I’ll pay for it. Let’s make it a present from the two of us,” I stated.

“O-okay. Thanks…”

“Don’t worry about it. Right now, you have a better idea of my mother’s tastes than I do. I have no choice but to leave it to you. At least let me pay for it,” I said.

“Okay, I understand!”

Tarte began to inspect the different fabrics with a severe expression on her face. She was taking this too seriously.

This could take a while…

I looked over at Epona. Curiously, she was staring at some of the items on display with a wistful look in her eyes.

If she’d told me she was a girl, I could’ve bought her something as a present, but as far as she knew, I still thought her to be a boy. Giving a supposed male student female clothing would’ve made me look like a pervert.

“I picked one, my lord. I’m going to get this strange light-pink color.”

Tarte’s voice brought me out of my contemplation. In her hands was a bolt of pink fabric. This color reminded me of the cherry blossom trees from my home in my previous life. Perhaps Tarte found the shade unusual because she’d never seen cherry blossoms.

“The texture feels nice, and I think my mother will like this shade. I’m sure it’d look good on you, too, Tarte,” I observed.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied.

“I’d say it does. You’re the one who wears the clothes my mother makes, after all,” I reminded.

“Th-that is true.”

My mother enjoyed treating Tarte like her own personal dress-up doll.

“Epona.”

I called out to the hero, but she didn’t respond. Her gaze was transfixed on a sky-blue dress. It seemed like unusual behavior, even for the flighty young woman.

“Epona!”

“Y-yes?”

“We’re going to go look at other stalls, but if there’s something you want to buy here, then we can split up.”

“Okay, let’s do that. Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Epona had been raised as a boy. Perhaps that was why she’d found girl clothing so captivating. If that was the case, I decided it was better that Tarte and I weren’t around. The hero wouldn’t be able to buy an outfit meant for a girl if people who were supposed to think she was male were around.

After three hours, Tarte and I had finished making our rounds at the Academy Market.

“We ended up with a lot of stuff,” I said.

“I might have gone a little overboard. But that was really satisfying,” Tarte replied, carrying around a bag and looking pleased with herself. Tarte was decently wealthy. My family had been paying her a retainer’s salary ever since she’d arrived in Tuatha Dé, and she hadn’t had much in the way of living expenses.

“Sorry, Tarte, but do you mind heading back without me?” I asked.

“You’re meeting with Maha, right?”

“No, I’m just going to pick up the results of an investigation. Maha is busy, so I doubt she came all the way out here.”

A round trip from Milteu took multiple days. As the Natural You brand’s proxy representative, Maha was very busy, and her time was valuable.

“No, she’s definitely here. There’s no way Maha would pass up a chance to see you, my lord!” stated Tarte confidently.

I won’t mind if she’s right.

“If she is here, then would you want to come, too?” I questioned.

“No, I’ll go back. Maha undoubtedly wants it to be just the two of you. I can be with you all the time, but the same can’t be said for her. I’d feel bad if I didn’t give her some alone time with you.”

“That’s what she wants?”

“That’s what she wants.”

Tarte and Maha were close, so I would’ve thought Maha wanted to see her, too, but if Tarte said otherwise, then that probably wasn’t the case.

Tarte and I went our separate ways, and I headed for the Natural You stall.

Despite it only being the first day of the event, there was already a line that wound outward from my company’s stand. The market wasn’t open to the public yet, and there were already so many people. I could only guess at what things would be like tomorrow. It was a good reminder of how popular Natural You was.

All right, what should I do? My plan had been to be taken to the back of the stall after providing an excuse about wanting to test some products. This long line was going to make that difficult, however.

I thought I felt a familiar presence behind me, and then someone put an arm around one of mine.

“Hey, handsome, would you like to go on a date with me?” invited a young woman who glanced up at me amorously.

Her sleek, blue hair was concealed under a hat today, and she’d used makeup to disguise herself slightly. Instead of her usual attire, she was wearing something sweet and stylish.

Even with such differences, there was no way I wouldn’t recognize the girl. She wasn’t just a friend; she was family.

“That sounds great. There’s a nice pop-up café nearby. Want to go there and get some sweets?” I proposed.

“That would be lovely. Shall we be off?”

“Okay.”

The young girl—Maha—beamed.

Tarte had read the situation correctly. It looked like Maha had gone to a lot of trouble just to come here and spend time with me.

It was surprising to see her in disguise, but that served a practical purpose. As the face of Natural You, Maha had become something of a celebrity. She counted many nobles among her acquaintances. If anyone recognized her, it would probably cause a commotion.

We entered the café together. Thankfully, it wasn’t too crowded when we stopped by.

The place was famous for its high-quality herbal tea and unique desserts. I’d actually been interested in the company that ran the little restaurant because they were supposedly prevalent in an eastern city. The pop-up café they’d set up used academy facilities, which afforded secluded rooms perfect for private conversations.

“…Maha, are we really ordering this?” I asked.

“Yes, we’re pretending to be a couple, so we don’t raise any suspicion. We have to order something that makes us look the part,” Maha replied with a spirited grin.

We both ordered the signature herbal tea, as well as one extra-large parfait. It was called the Super Lovey Dovey Parfait, so asking for it understandably took some courage.

Our tea arrived first.

“This smells so good,” Maha remarked.

“Yeah, it’s relaxing. I see why this restaurant is so popular,” I added.

“…But Natural You’s tea is better. If this restaurant is doing so well, we should be able to do better. Maybe we shouldn’t just sell tea leaves, but also open a café business?” Maha proposed.

The tea Maha was talking about was made from tea leaves imported using a trade route that Maha herself had pioneered. I’d devised a way to brew them using techniques from my previous life. My method resulted in a more potent fragrance and crisper taste than the local style.

Natural You had been seeking out high-quality tea leaves because they appealed to our target audience of wealthy women. I had high hopes that expanding into beverages would land us another hit product.

“Opening up a café would be interesting. But we’d need help. Operating any sort of restaurant requires an entirely different business model than what we’ve been operating under. We might have to fumble in the dark a bit until we figure out what we’re doing. I’m not sure there’s anyone we can entrust such work to,” I explained.

“Yes there is, dear brother. Since you returned to Tuatha Dé, I’ve been training some promising children. They’d be perfect for the café,” Maha explained.

“Oh, you think those kids are up to it?” I asked.

“Yes… I owe you my thanks, dear brother. You told me not to keep my personal feelings out of business operations and encouraged me to follow my heart. It was your words that emboldened me to bring them on. It may have been motivated by my self-interest, but I’m sure the company will benefit nonetheless.”

The children Maha was referring to were the orphans she did business with back when she’d been living on the streets. They’d been snatched up and separated by different orphanages hoping to collect government subsidies, but Maha had worked on getting them back together. She was confident they’d be a marvelous boon to my corporation.

After adopting the kids, Maha trained them by having them work at a series of stores owned by the Balor Company.

I was doubtful of her plan, but all the branches that had taken Maha’s old friends in spoke highly of them. Many shops had been hesitant to let the children leave because of their excellent performance. Some even went as far as to say they’d pay a fee to keep them on permanently.

Like Maha, the orphans had learned to use their wits to survive and run a business despite the massive handicap of being young orphans. They were persistent, learned quickly, and were always rife with ideas.

Maha’s friends had turned out to be a treasure trove of talented employees for Natural You. Businesses weren’t usually able to gather such a plentiful supply of competent personnel. Maha had done a splendid job of accomplishing her personal goal of saving her old friends and ensuring Natural You’s success.

“I said that because I trust you, Maha. There’s no reason to thank me,” I said.

“Hearing you say that makes me want to work even harder. Just you watch. Natural You still has room to grow,” she replied.

Maha really was dependable. With her around, I didn’t have to worry about my enterprises, and I could live my life as Lugh Tuatha Dé.

The parfait finally arrived. It was a super-sized parfait made to be eaten by a couple. The Super Lovey Dovey Parfait was a monstrosity with a cringeworthy name.

“…This is way too much for two people to eat,” I observed.

“Don’t worry. I’m a big fan of sweets,” Maha replied.

The mountainous dessert had been amassed in a giant mug rather than a regular-sized cup. The flagon was made out of clear, valuable glass.

Sponge cake, strawberry jelly, sponge cake, strawberry cream, sponge cake, and strawberry jam. The parfait was made up of layers of sponge cake with various sweets in between, and on top there was a large serving of whipped cream and sliced strawberries. There were red, heart-shaped sugar candies buried throughout.

…Just looking at it is giving me heartburn.

Two spoons had been stuck into the mug as well. Each one was absurdly long.

“It’ll be tough to eat with such long utensils. What were they thinking with these?” I said.

“The reason the spoons are like that is so you can do this.”

With a smile on her face, Maha scooped up a spoonful of cream and then held her spoon in front of my mouth.

“I see. The length is so you can feed your partner. This parfait really is made for couples.”

“That’s right. Can you hurry up and eat that for me? I want to eat, too.” Maha shook her spoon in front of my face.

“This is pretty embarrassing, though,” I admitted.

“…You’re too cruel. You don’t know how many all-nighters I pulled to be able to come here, and you won’t even indulge me with this one thing,” pouted Maha.

She started to blatantly fake cry. Fake tears aside, I couldn’t deny that she’d worked very hard to see me.

Thank goodness this is a private room. If these had been open seats, I would’ve been way too embarrassed to do this.

I took Maha’s spoon in my mouth. The whipped cream was very light. It was airy and moderately sweet, yet it possessed a robust flavor.

After realizing how good the parfait tasted, it suddenly didn’t seem impossible to finish.

“You’re up next, dear brother.”

“I have to feed you, too?”

“…I went to such painstaking lengths to gather all the information you requested. Surely that’s enough to earn this small act of kindness?”

Maha traced her lips with a finger. It was quite a suggestive gesture.

I smiled wryly, scooped up some of the pile of sweets with my spoon, and held it to Maha’s lips. She happily ate it, savoring the taste in her mouth.

…This is even more embarrassing than I thought it would be.

“It’s so good. I’m confident in our tea, but we won’t be able to succeed if I don’t do some thorough research into dessert,” Maha said.

“I’m impressed you’re able to think about business under these circumstances. The embarrassment is driving me crazy,” I responded.

“This isn’t easy for me, either. That’s precisely why I’m trying to hide my embarrassment. Okay, next is the strawberry jam and sponge cake layer. Let’s keep going. Uncovering new flavors as we eat is exciting. Despite it being so large, the different tastes as you work your way down really keep you eating. This is some valuable information,” observed Maha.

After I fed Maha, it was now her turn to spoon me some.

This is still embarrassing, but I need to push through it.

We continued to feed each other.

It took us thirty minutes, but we somehow succeeded in taking down a noticeable portion of the parfait.

I’m tired. Mentally and physically.

“That was so much food,” I said, exhausted.

“Yeah. We only barely got through it… The item must have an impact, but when I serve this kind of dessert at my restaurant, I think I’ll reduce the size a bit,” noted Maha.

Maha looked pretty uncomfortable. She wasn’t usually the type to eat very much.

“…Okay, I’ve gotten my reward. Let’s move on to work.”

“Yes, that would be a big help. I’m ready.”

I used a spell to probe the area and make sure no one was spying on us. At the same time, I created a cage of wind to prevent sound from leaking out of our room. We could now talk about confidential matters without any risk.

“First, let’s go over what I learned about Epona Rhiannon. It wasn’t easy, but I obtained interesting information from the Royal Order… She is stuck between a promise and a traumatic event. That might be her biggest weakness.”

Maha handed me a folder of papers, and I quickly leafed through them. Contained therein were many theories regarding the hero, along with evidence to support them.

From the way Epona had acted during the mock battle, I’d thought she was a fighting enthusiast, but I was wrong. It was more complicated than that. An obsession had wormed its way into her mind.

“I’m impressed you were able to gather this much information,” I praised.

“You did tell me to be scrupulous,” replied Maha.

She made it sound simple, but this was no ordinary report. It was detailed information that could ruin Epona if it ever got out.

“This information will be the key to reaching her heart,” Maha stated.

“With your report and what I know about Epona’s personality, I’m sure she’s over there right now,” I said.

“I agree. You should get going, dear brother.”

Maha had handed me additional documents containing information on a traumatic event in Epona’s history and the person at the center of it. This information was the ultimate weapon in my fight to get Epona to open up to me.

Reading over Maha’s intel also made me realize another misconception of mine. At the clothing stall, Epona hadn’t been staring at a dress because she’d never had a chance to dress like a girl. She’d been reminiscing.

That’s when I remembered that the vivid dyes the clothing company had grown rich off of were the special product of a certain rural domain in the Alvanian Kingdom. And that region was…

“You don’t mind if I leave?” I checked.

“Not at all. You’ve treated me to a nice date. I’m satisfied… No, that’s a lie. I want to be with you longer. But Tarte and I live for you, dear brother. So go,” Maha urged.

“…Sorry. No, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I was able to come here today. So this is where you and Tarte have been living. There are so many students, and they all look so radiant.”

“Do you wish you were attending?” I questioned.

Any fourteen-year-old mage in Alvan could attend the academy if they applied. Maha was just as eligible as anyone else.

“Yes. I’m jealous of Tarte. Being a student sounds interesting, but more than that, I’m very, very envious that she gets to spend all her time with you… My wish to attend school with you is outweighed by my happiness at being of use from my place in Milteu. I wanted to come, and I am jealous, but it’s better the way things are now. I don’t have any regrets.”

Maha beamed. Her smile was always beautiful.

“…Thank you. I’ll have to do something to thank you next time we meet.”

“Yes, since I know now that you will indulge me to this degree, next time, I’ll have to request something even more daring. But that’s not important right now. You really don’t have time. You need to go.”

“Until next time.”

“Bye, dear brother.”

Leaving Maha and the café behind, I headed off to find Epona.

Maha’s digging had uncovered the defining incident in Epona’s life. Evidently, a key person in her life was resting in the city surrounding the academy.

Armed with that knowledge, I bought a particular item and headed for the public cemetery.

The graveyard was for knights who’d served in the capital. It was located in the same city as the school. A group of aristocrats had opposed the construction of a cemetery in the royal capital, so it’d been built here instead.

Differing offerings adorned the many graves.

Epona was kneeling before a monument devoted to multiple people. She’d bought that sky-blue dress she’d been staring at earlier and had placed in front of herself.

I walked up beside her, placed a bouquet of flowers in front of the structure, and put my hands together.

Epona looked at me with surprise plain on her face. Pretending not to notice, I knelt, offered a silent prayer, and stood back up.

“Didn’t expect to see you here, Epona,” I said once I’d finished.

“Yeah, what a coincidence. Is someone you knew buried here?” Epona asked.

“Yeah, a woman who was beloved among the knights of the Royal Order. I know she really liked flowers like these, and after I saw them at the Academy Market, I wanted to buy some for her.”

“That’s an amazing coincidence. The same thing happened to me with this sky-blue dress. She had an outfit just like this once and said she wanted me to wear it someday. Ah, wait, that’s not what I meant. I don’t like to dress in female clothing or anything.”

One of the people entombed below the monument was someone significant to Epona. She’d been born in the rural region of Alvan that produced the colorful dye. That’s why Epona had responded in such an unusual way upon spotting the vividly colored dress.

“Ha-ha, sounds like a weird person. My acquaintance also liked bright shades. She especially liked a flower called flaura. She always said they were the same color as her hometown.”

“The same color as her home town…flaura… Your acquaintance isn’t Mireille, is it?”

“It is. Did you know her, too?” I asked, feigning surprise.

Everything I was saying to Epona was a lie. I only knew Mireille from the documents Maha had assembled for me. It was all a ruse to earn Epona’s trust.

“I’m actually also here to visit her grave. Wow, I never would’ve imagined you were a friend of hers. It really is a small world… Then there’s something I need to tell you. If you were Mireille’s friend, I need to apologize to you. I’m the one who killed her.” Epona bowed her head to me, tears welling up in her eyes.

“You killed her? Do you mind telling me what you mean by that? I’d heard she perished in a fight against some monsters.”

I shifted my outward facade to one of anger and doubt.

“That’s wrong… Before I became the hero, I was a weakling without any mana. Everyone called me a failure. I couldn’t do anything, and nobody wanted me. But then, one day, when a pack of monsters attacked my domain, power began to well up inside me. Before I knew it, I’d killed them all. After that, the Royal Order arrived. Mireille was the first one off that carriage. She told me I’m the hero and took me to the royal capital.”

That much had been described in Maha’s report.

“At the capital, I was officially proclaimed to be the hero. Mireille took charge of my instruction. She was very nice and pretty. Before becoming the hero, I hadn’t received much of an education, so I learned a lot from her. She valued and praised me. In time, I started to think of Mireille as my older sister.”

Epona clenched her fists tightly as she continued.

“It was all going so well. I was growing stronger and smarter every day. Mireille would praise me every time I took down a monster. I’d never been of help to anyone before, but now I was supporting everyone. It was comforting to know so many people needed me.”

Epona’s face was growing more distraught as she continued. Sadness and regret were written all over her face.

“I allowed myself to ride that wave of accomplishment and praise… And that’s when it happened. It was the largest monster attack yet, and they weren’t just great in number. They were strong, too. The Royal Order and I fought as best we could. As we fought, I noticed myself feeling more and more heated. Eventually, a strange feeling began to pool inside me. My vision then went red, and I lost myself. Lashing out with my power became too enjoyable for me to resist. I went on a rampage, and before I knew it, all the monsters were gone.”

That battle was Epona’s most lauded achievement. The monsters she’d defeated were strong enough to take out the entire Royal Order, but she’d reportedly repelled them with “minimal casualties.”

“It wasn’t until I regained my senses that I realized what I’d really done. I hadn’t just destroyed the monsters. I’d attacked knights as well. Everyone had gotten hurt because of me—even Mireille. After searching for a while, I finally found her cold and covered in blood. The sight of her brought an urge to hit something to the forefront of my mind. In the next moment, I’d already done it. She was still breathing, and I tried to save her, but it was too late…”

Epona’s words were both a lament and a confession.

The hero had the misfortune of being a regular person bestowed with incredible power. She didn’t realize there was a bomb strapped to her back that could explode at any moment.

“What do you think the last thing Mireille said to me was, Lugh? Do you think that she said she didn’t want to die? That she hated me?” Epona asked.

“I doubt it was any of those. The Mireille I know wouldn’t have said those kinds of things,” I replied.

“Ha-ha-ha, you’re right. Mireille thanked me for defeating the monsters and told me I’d saved many people. The last thing she ever said to me was ‘Protect the Alvanian Kingdom in my stead.’”

A large tear rolled down Epona’s cheek.

“…I’m scared. The more serious I get in battle, the more enraged I become. If I wind up in another fight like that one, I could go off and kill someone again. I don’t want to fight… But I can’t run away. I owe it to Mireille not to. ‘Protect the Alvanian Kingdom in my place.’ There’s no way I can break that oath!!”

That was Epona’s weakness. She was caught between a promise and a traumatic incident.

Combat terrified Epona, but it wasn’t her own demise that filled her with dread. Instead, it was the concern that she’d slay another person who was dear to her. She’d loved Mireille like an older sister.

Unfortunately, Epona also felt an obligation to see Mireille’s dying wish fulfilled. It was both a plea and a curse. Epona had no choice but to fight.

Mireille had probably asked that of Epona while fully understanding the implication. She’d known that if she didn’t, the hero would never step foot on the battlefield again. To prevent that, Mireille had used the last of her power to keep Epona in the fight.

That woman had been a knight through and through. To the very last, she worked to ensure the safety of her kingdom.

I respected her unflinching sense of duty.

“Do you despise me for being the one who killed Mireille? Are you scared of me? Stay around me too long, and you might end up dead, too.”

“No, I don’t despise you. Even though you’re frightened, you still try to keep your promise to Mireille… I finally understand why you were so happy when you said you thought I wouldn’t get hurt sparring with you. It was because you don’t want anyone to end up like Mireille ever again.”

Epona wanted a training partner. She’d been searching for someone capable enough to survive her learning how to use her immense power without going berserk.

And she’d found me.

“Yeah. I’m very, very grateful to you. I want to become strong enough to resist losing myself when I fight. The thought of killing another person I love is too much. I don’t know what I’ll do if something like that happens again… I suppose you’re not going to want to help me anymore, though. I killed your friend, after all.”

This was the truth of Epona’s heart. Without the key that was Mireille, I would’ve never unlocked it.

“I will support you as Mireille’s friend. Mireille thanked you, didn’t she? She asked you to protect Alvan. It’s not my place to condemn you. To fulfill her wish… To help you become strong enough to protect this country, I will lend you my power. You don’t need to worry. I’m strong enough to survive a few rounds with you. Feel free to train with me to your heart’s content. Should you fall into bloodlust again on the battlefield, I will stop you,” I declared.

“Can I trust you on that?”

“Yes. You know what I’m capable of.”

“Yeah, I do. Um, there’s something I’ve always wanted to say but couldn’t bring myself to… Please be my friend. I never dared to say that to Mireille. If you’re okay with someone like me, and I don’t frighten you, then please be my friend… I’m lonely.”

Overwhelming power meant overwhelming isolation. That was something I could never have predicted.

“Sounds good to me. We’re friends,” I agreed.

I extended my right hand for a handshake. Epona gripped it tightly and smiled as she wiped away her tears.

“Ah-ha-ha, I’m embarrassed, but happy, too. Thank you, Lugh.”

“Of course, Epona.”

And just like that, I became the hero’s friend.

It was a relationship built on multiple calculated lies. Nonetheless, I still intended to be a genuine ally. That was how I planned to atone for deceiving Epona and using Mireille’s name. I would make up for my falsehoods by saving the hero.

…It’d been hard to warm up to the hero before. After hearing her bare her heart to me, however, I really didn’t want to kill her.

I didn’t assassinate people like some mindless tool anymore. I’d vowed to live my life for myself. To that end, I needed to search as best I could for a way to save the world without slaying Epona.

I would use every method available to me to prevent things from reaching a point where I would be forced to choose between Epona and the rest of the world.

Chapter 14 | The Assassin Receives Military Duty

A few days had passed since the end of the Academy Market. I arrived in the classroom, and then while I was chatting with Naoise, an announcement sounded over the broadcast equipment.

“The following first-year students from Class S are to report to Visitation Room 2. Lugh, Naoise, Epona, Claudia, and Tarte. This is a top priority.”

If they had called Naoise, Dia, Tarte, and me without Epona, this would likely have been about our secret mission. The hero had been called as well, however, so it had to be something unrelated.

“I wonder what it could be. This must be quite the emergency.”

“We’re missing class. I have a bad feeling about this.”

Naoise and I looked at each other with bitter smiles on our faces. I hoped it wouldn’t be anything too bothersome, but that seemed unlikely.

We entered the visitation room to find the instructor in charge of Class S, Professor Dune, and a dignified-looking woman in knight’s clothing waiting for us. Decorations on the woman’s uniform immediately informed us of her skill. Clearly, she held some sort of high position.

Professor Dune motioned for us to sit. Once we did so, he used a pen to mark a point on a map hung on the wall and began to speak.

“Apologies for causing you to miss your lessons. I’ll get straight to the point. You five are being sent into combat. A village about five kilometers west of here is being encroached upon by a horde of around one hundred orcs. Orcs use human women for breeding. If left to their own devices, the orcs will multiply and attack the nearby city of Rutolia. We must avoid that outcome at all costs. We’re going to set up an ambush and wipe them out before they have a chance to do anything to the village.”

Monsters had been appearing in larger numbers lately. These portentous events foretold the return of the Demon King. I’d been expecting something like this to happen sooner or later.

Our professor laid out a sensible and straightforward battle strategy.

The city of Rutolia was the economic center of this region, and it couldn’t be allowed to fall. While Rutolia possessed strong defenses in the form of heavily fortified walls, the hope was that we would stop the orcs before sealing off the city became a necessity.

However, three things were bothering me, and I raised my hand.

“Lugh Tuatha Dé. You may speak,” Professor Dune allowed.

“I have a few questions. There should be a stronghold in front of the village. Does the orcs’ advance on the village mean they managed to break through the stronghold unharmed?”

“No. The orcs didn’t push past the stronghold. It seems they simply appeared beyond its perimeter. Unfortunately, the bastion has its hands full dealing with another group of monsters, so they won’t be able to offer any help.”

“Okay, my second question: No matter how strong we are, we are students. It hasn’t been very long since we enrolled, and we haven’t received much training in military strategy. Could you please share the reason for entrusting us with this duty despite our inexperience?”

I didn’t lack confidence, but I still wanted to know why five first-years had been chosen. We had power to spare, but we weren’t coordinated as a group to move effectively as a unit. Sending us into battle seemed abnormal.

“The honest answer is we’re simply shorthanded. When there are monsters that need exterminating, the duty is first entrusted to the infested domain’s ruler. If they are not able to deal with it, they request help from the Royal Order. Lately, monsters have repeatedly been appearing in large quantities, and the Royal Order has sent out all personnel not needed to defend the capital. When the knights cannot deal with a situation, professors and upper-level students are dispatched from the academy. As you may have already surmised, all available professors and upper-level students are away. You five are the only first-years the faculty feels can handle this responsibility.”

It seems like they think very highly of us.

I’d never seen an orc in person, but I knew it was suicide for anyone other than a mage to take them on. Suppose the knights from the Royal Order and the upperclassmen were already off handling other problems. In that case, I could understand why the academy would want to send novice mages like us over ordinary folk with military training.

“Okay, now for my third question: We are going to be fighting orcs. Considering the worst-case scenario, it’d be best if girls weren’t around. Would it not be best to leave Dia and Tarte behind?”

“You’re exactly right. However, I’ll say this: They’ll be fine if you protect them. The scale of this horde is huge, and we can’t afford to send any fewer than five people. Even considering the risks, we need to make sure we meet the enemy with the proper amount of force.”

I felt an urge to ask Professor Dune if he’d lost his mind.

Orcs were giants that stood around three meters tall, and they had the strength to match their bulk. They also had a unique method of reproduction. Orcs were an all-male species, and they reproduced by impregnating females of other species.

Orcs were incredibly fertile, and they could continue to copulate for more than half a day. Uninterrupted, they would impregnate a female in a single night. The child was born only three days later. It was the offspring that was the most problematic.

Orc children inherited the best traits of their mothers’ species. An orc attack not only increased their numbers, but those born of human mothers would possess higher intelligence. If those intelligent orcs took command of the horde, their threat level would increase exponentially.

If things went south for us…

“If Tarte and Dia end up impregnated, they will give birth to terrifyingly strong monsters,” I said.

“Don’t make me repeat myself. We are aware of the risks. I’m telling you not to let that happen.”

Because orcs received their mothers’ most valuable qualities, an orc born from a powerful mage would be both smart and mighty in battle.

…The last thing I wanted to do was take Dia and Tarte to a location brimming with creatures that were filled with lust for human women.

“Thank you very much for worrying about me, my lord. But I will be fine. I won’t let them beat me,” Tarte assured.

“That’s right. You’ve trained us well, Lugh, and you’ll be there to protect us if something goes wrong. This is going to be a tough job, and I want to help you,” Dia insisted.

I can’t bring myself to think that optimistically.

Our enemy was powerful. Orcs had immense strength and endless stamina. There was a decent chance something could go wrong.

“No matter what you may have to say, the order is absolute. You all are nobles of this country. You should give your all to serve it… I will be accompanying you for support, and this lady from the Royal Order will be traveling with us as well,” Professor Dune explained.

“Apologies for the delay in introducing myself. I am Rachel Barton. I was a member of this academy’s very first class. I will protect you all, so you do not need to worry.”

Rachel Barton. She was one of the first graduates of this academy and probably graduated with top honors.

We five took turns giving our names to her.

“I’ve heard that multiple once-a-decade talents have entered the academy this year. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” Rachel said with a smile.

“We will work hard to live up to your expectations,” I responded, deciding to concede to Professor Dune’s orders. No matter what excuses I made, the decision had been set.

“With Lugh and me on the job, we’ll be just fine. What’s more, the hero is coming, too. It doesn’t matter how many orcs there are; we’ll win,” Naoise declared. I couldn’t hide my discomfort with such an overconfident statement.

While I didn’t say anything about it out loud, there was something even more concerning than our opponents—Epona. I’d fought her many times since our first sparring session. If she went berserk, I don’t think anyone would escape unharmed except myself.

If Epona could lose it during a mock battle, then the risk of an outburst during a real fight with actual monsters seemed even higher. Not even I was sure what’d happen if Epona went on a rampage.

Epona turned to me and said, “I’ll do my best. You’ve really helped me get more confident, Lugh!”

That’s exactly why I’m scared. I’ll have to watch out for Epona as much as the orcs.

“That is all. Departure is in three hours. Prepare yourselves, then gather at the Royal Order’s carriage in the main square. This is a military operation, so you must wear a uniform. That is all; you’re dismissed.” Professor Dune turned his back to us as if to convey he had nothing left to disclose.

Never had I guessed I’d be assigned duty so early in my tenure at the academy.

We walked into the hallway and then headed to our rooms to prepare. Dia and Tarte remained with me. Naoise had an ambitious smile on his face as he walked away.

Facing Dia and Tarte, I cautioned, “There are three promises you need to make me, or you may not survive. I couldn’t say any of this in front of the professor or the knight.”

Seeing how serious I was, they both nodded with firm expressions.

“First, stay close to me. Don’t pursue any enemies too far away and stay by my side. Understand? Anything could happen once we engage our opponents. A blow from an orc will knock you unconscious regardless of how much you’ve strengthened yourself with mana. They instinctively prioritize overpowering females and taking them away. If any one of them succeeds in grabbing a girl, the other orcs will form a wall to protect them. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen. As long as you two are by my side, I will cover your blind spots.”

“O-okay. I promise to stay close to you,” Tarte agreed.

“Yeah, I’ll be careful, too. I don’t like being separated from you anyway,” Dia added.

“Second, prioritize my orders. When the professor’s orders run counter to mine, follow my orders without hesitation,” I instructed.

“That goes without saying. I am your retainer.”

Such an attitude made Tarte unsuitable as a knight of the academy, but it was a perfect answer for my servant.

“I don’t have anything cool to say like Tarte, but I also plan to do as you say,” Dia replied.

“Lastly, we need to watch out for Epona. She’s a far greater danger than the orcs. Don’t let your guard down…or you will die.”

As long as they keep those three promises, they’ll be fine.

Using brand new students like us was a clear demonstration of how shorthanded the school was.

I wondered if the academy had constructed this situation to test the hero’s abilities. It hardly mattered now. All that was left was to give it my all. Anything less risked death.

Chapter 15 | The Assassin Shares Some Mana

My preparations took little time, but I arrived at the gathering point to find everyone else already there.

Epona was so strong that she didn’t need equipment, but the others were dressed for battle.

Naoise had a magic sword, and while Tarte, Dia, and I looked no different than usual, we were wearing special undergarments.

They’d been made from monster tissue that had been extracted using Tuatha Dé medical secrets. The material guarded exceptionally well against slashing and bludgeoning attacks, as well as heat. It was quite malleable, too. Tuatha Dé assassins wore outfits made of this wondrous stuff when entering a rough combat situation.

“This is uncomfortably tight on my chest.”

“…Do your best to hang in there.”

Evidently, the undergarments hadn’t been designed with the chest size of someone like Tarte in mind. While they had some amount of elasticity, it was not without limit. I felt bad for Tarte, but there was nothing to be done.

“What? That’s cr—I mean, y-yeah… Lugh, I don’t think it’s gonna be easy for me, either,” Dia piped up.

“I-is that so?”

Dia was clearly lying. Her chest fit just fine.

Before long, it was time for us to depart. We all climbed into the wagon and took off for our destination.

The horde of orcs didn’t seem like it was going to be too much of a problem. I only hoped the army’s information was correct.

We arrived at the ravine where we were going to ambush the orcs. Some soldiers were gathered there, too.

Non-mages were unable to fight in battles against monsters. Still, they could serve as lookouts, scouts, or guards. Other tasks like making camp, assisting with villager evacuation, procuring supplies, and delivering messages to and from command could also be entrusted to them.

Their presence enabled mages to focus on battle.

A scout returned and reported to Rachel. The woman nodded, then looked like she was contemplating how best to convey this new information to us. After considering for a moment, she sauntered over.

“The orcs will arrive in four hours. We don’t know how, but their numbers have increased. The estimate has increased from one hundred to one hundred and fifty,” she told us with a calm voice. An increase of 50 percent was not good news. Typically, the proper procedure would’ve been to cancel our operation and retreat.

I waited for Rachel to say something else, but she remained quiet. Tarte then broke the silence by hesitantly raising her hand.

“Um, is there a plan for this?”

“The plan is simple. We use this ravine to kill all the orcs. To be more specific, those who are skilled in close combat will fight hard up front, and those who are skilled at using mana will fire spells from the rear,” Rachel replied.

Doesn’t sound like much of a plan. That said, giving us a complicated strategy when we held no real organized combat training was impossible.

“Miss Rachel, I have something to say. The canyon is a suitable place to engage the orcs, but the road leading into it is too wide. Fighting an army of one hundred and fifty head-on would be suicide,” I observed.

The entrance into the ravine was wide enough that five to six orcs could enter at a time. Handling that many was an impossible task for our vanguard. It would lead to our rearguard getting surrounded, which would keep them from casting spells. In the end, we were just too few.

“But we don’t have any better options,” Rachel protested.

“Perhaps if you consider the map to be stagnant, but what if we change the terrain? Dia and I can use our earth magic to narrow the road. We can make a gently sloping dirt wall so no more than two orcs will be able to pass through at a time,” I suggested.

I drew a simple picture on a piece of paper. Just as I’d explained, we’d alter the landscape by creating a slope in the earth that connected the walls of the canyon. This would make a choke point that reduced how many orcs could get through. The barricade would also keep enemy projectiles out. The mages in the rearguard would be safe to hurl spells over our wall.

In truth, I would’ve preferred to close off the ravine entirely, but that would incentivize the orcs to look for another way around, so the opening had to be kept wide enough that they still wanted to go through.

“That’s an interesting plan. But do you have enough mana to create a dirt wall of this size?” Rachel inquired.

“That won’t be a problem for Dia and me. You said we have four hours until the enemy arrives, right? We’ll build the wall and still have enough time left over to recover any lost mana,” I declared.

“I agree completely,” added Dia.

Rachel looked at Professor Dune.

“I’ll allow it. Lugh, Claudia, give it a try.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Lugh, let’s do our best.”

Dia and I nodded at each other and immediately got to work.

The mages and the non-mages alike looked on in wonder.

“This is magnificent. I’m always amazed by the beauty of Lugh and Dia’s magic,” said Naoise.

“Yes, Lord Lugh and Lady Dia are geniuses when it comes to magic,” responded Tarte.

“Whoa, that’s incredible. I can’t believe those two are students. I wish I could hire them into my service right now,” Rachel admitted.

While we weren’t using any spells of our own design, our near-perfect execution despite the massive scale and our seemingly endless supplies of mana must’ve made us look inhuman.

But that aside, are Rachel and the professor right in the head? If I hadn’t said anything, the fight could’ve gone very badly. Everyone but Epona undoubtedly would’ve died.

Once again, I was left to wonder if they’d done this on purpose as a way to gauge the hero’s strength.

After our construction project came to an end, we left the watch to the troops and went to rest in our tent. To have Dia recover mana more quickly, I induced sleep using a Tuatha Dé secret drug that caused muscle relaxation and an accelerated stamina recovery rate.

“I’m getting nervous, my lord,” Tarte said, her hands shaking.

“Are you scared?” I asked.

“No. I’m never scared when I’m with you.”

“Is that so? I have one piece of advice for you. Make sure you don’t hesitate. Act with certainty.”

“Okay!”

Tarte gripped her spear. Expecting a tough battle, she was reinforcing the weapon’s joints.

“Also, um, can you give me a little? I’ve run out again,” Tarte admitted.

“You still can’t control your eye?” I inquired.

“Yes, I’m leaking mana constantly. So please give me some of yours, my lord.”

I glanced over at Dia. It looked like she was fast asleep. That meant we didn’t need to move somewhere else.

Tuatha Dé eyes had a disadvantage. While they strengthened your vision by gathering mana, you needed practice to keep yourself from unconsciously feeding mana to them. If you weren’t careful, they could run you dry.

For that reason, I had to use a spell to refill Tarte’s mana.

I pressed my lips against Tarte’s. Using that as an entry point, I poured mana into her. It was easiest to transfer mana through contact of mucous membranes.

When my lips touched hers, Tarte collapsed into my arms. She closed her eyes and pressed hard against me. When mana began to flow into Tarte’s body, she shivered, and her breathing intensified.

The spell was one of my own design. Connecting mana wavelengths was an extremely advanced technique. I don’t think more than a handful of people had ever attempted it.

…I didn’t really want to use this method, but ever since I’d used it to save Tarte from mana depletion one time, she’d gotten into the habit of pestering me for it.

Truthfully, I suspected that Tarte had been able to control her eye for a while, and she was just using this as an excuse. She looked adorable when she asked, however, so I allowed it. Plus, holding her tight and pressing my lips against hers was enjoyable.

“Is that enough?” I asked, breaking away from Tarte.

After the spell, Tarte always seemed to grow more amorous than you might’ve expected of someone like her.

“Yes, I’m full of your mana, and I feel so brave now!” Tarte brought a hand to her lips with an ecstatic expression on her face.

…I kept this method of recovery a secret from Dia. If I told her about it, it would likely mean trouble.

The camp suddenly grew noisy. The enemy had arrived.

“Sounds like it’s time. Dia, wake up.”

“Mmmm, good morning, Lugh.”

“I did tell you to rest up, but sleeping that soundly in this kind of situation takes some guts.”

“I guess so. But thanks to that nap, I recovered a lot of mana.”

Dia was acting no different than normal. It didn’t look like she’d seen what Tarte and I had just done.

“Then let’s go. Dia, you still have what I gave you, right?” I asked.

“Of course.”

Dia pulled five Fahr Stones filled to their critical point out of her pouch.

They were the last resort in case she ran out of mana. Fahr Stones were something I really wanted to keep secret, but Dia’s life was more valuable.

“Tarte, are you ready?”

“Yes, I won’t let them beat me.”

The soldiers came to get us. The time had come for battle.

Chapter 16 | The Assassin Fights Orcs

The sun was sinking low into the horizon, and everyone was in their places.

Naoise, Tarte, and Epona were the vanguard.

I was stationed as the middle guard. My job was to take out orcs with magic and then support the vanguard if anything went wrong. Dia was in the back, focusing on ranged spells.

Farther behind her, Rachel and Professor Dune were waiting in reserve. Their role was to assist us if we fell into a dangerous situation and to stop any orcs that broke through. They were also standing ready to replace anyone who became unable to continue the battle.

“The orcs are here.”

What little I could see through the gaps in the choke point that Dia and I had created was painted dark green with the skin of the approaching monsters.

Regular soldiers had been stationed above the ravine to make up for our limited visibility. They would report on any unusual movement.

The three-meter-tall giants marched through the canyon. Soldiers from above fired arrows, but the thick-skinned orcs suffered no injury.

Just as we’d intended, the monsters were slowed by the mass of earth Dia and I had constructed. As soon as Dia and I were assured of that, we began our incantations.

We finished our spells the moment the first orcs passed through the entrance. Both of us cried out, “Crimson Explosion!”

Crimson Explosion was the twentieth fire spell bestowed by the gods upon repeated use of fire magic. Most mages died before ever learning it. As you might’ve expected, it was very powerful.

Fireballs the size of basketballs flew over the wall in parabolic arcs, landing amid the horde of orcs and exploding. Red flames roared to life amid the army of monsters.

A soldier observing from above called out, “The spells made impact! Eight enemies are down!”

Orcs really were tough. Despite being elite mages, Dia and I only took out four orcs each using an advanced spell.

However, we didn’t have time to despair. Our role as mages was to use the wall as a shield to launch as many spells as we could. The more orcs we took out, the easier a time the vanguard would have.

Of course, the vanguard’s role was to eliminate any orcs that passed through the entrance. They were intercepting the first two orcs that managed to get through right now.

Epona charged at one of them.

“Die!”

She simply rushed up to it and swung with the back of her fist. Its abdomen rippled and then ruptured. Its top half was cleaved from its bottom half and was sent flying, wedging into the dirt wall.

Epona didn’t use weapons. Her strength rendered weapons unusable because they couldn’t handle the force of her attacks and ended up breaking.

“Let’s go, Tarte!”

“Okay!”

Naoise and Tarte engaged the other orc together. It was an improvised attack, but they skillfully trapped the monster by flanking it. While the orc was unsure of what to do, Tarte pierced an eye with her spear, and Naoise sliced off a hand with his sharp sword.

That was skilled. Orcs were protected by thick, armor-like skin and fat. Any normal attack couldn’t damage them. Despite that, Tarte had taken out an eye, and Naoise easily cut through the creature’s wrist, leaving a growing pool of red fluid. Despite the blood loss, the orc continued to rage until it collapsed less than a minute later and went cold.

At the rate things were going, we would be able to defeat the orcs without overextending ourselves. As long as they used the path we’d created, no more than two, at most three, of the monsters would be able to get through at a time. Epona, Naoise, and Tarte could handle such an amount without issue. As they took care of the orcs up front, Dia and I burned those caught waiting at the choke point.

It was going to be an intense fight, but our victory was inevitable. All we had to do was maintain our current pattern. The only uncertainty was whether we’d be able to take out all the orcs before we ran out of strength.

And so began a test of endurance.

Thirty minutes flew by, but our fight had still not concluded. Something felt unusual.

We should’ve taken out more than one hundred orcs by now, yet the onslaught showed no signs of letting up.

The wall kept us from seeing the whole picture, forcing us to rely on reports from the soldiers above on the sides of the canyon.

Naoise yelled at the soldiers, rare frustration breaking through his usual calm demeanor. “How many more of them can there possibly be?!”

“By our estimation, one hundred and twenty!” came the reply.

“What do you mean? We’ve already killed at least a hundred of them!” Naoise exclaimed.

“They’re getting reinforcements from somewhere.”

An extra fifty had been bad enough, but now there were sizable reserves.

Altogether, the orc force totaled two hundred twenty. What’s worse, we had no guarantee the number would stop there.

An extra seventy soldiers is too great a number for them to have just been hiding out somewhere… I have a bad feeling about this. We should consider the possibility that there is a demon with the power to produce monsters lurking nearby. This is bad.

“Sorry, I don’t think I can last any longer.”

Looking pale, Dia fell to her knees. She’d run out of mana.

It wasn’t surprising. She’d been casting Crimson Explosion continuously for over half an hour.

Tarte was in trouble as well. Her movements were visibly slowing.

An orc swung at her with its club, and she failed to dodge.

“GAAAHHHHHH!”

Tarte just barely managed to defend herself with her left arm, but her bone broke with a snap, and she was knocked backward onto the ground. It didn’t seem like she was able to stand back up.

An orc turned toward Tarte and reached out toward her. It was going to carry her away.

“You stinking pig!!!”

I stopped my Crimson Explosion incantation and sprinted toward her. I charged and used my momentum to spin in the air, landing with a palm strike that sent the orc flying.

It was the same move I’d used on the vice-commander of the Royal Guard during the entrance exam. It caused an explosion of mana and energy within the orc, ripping a hole through the creature. It bled out and died.

Unlike the last time I’d used the maneuver, I didn’t hold back. This caused an explosion within the monster that allowed me to ignore its thick fat and muscle.

“Lord Lugh!”

“Tarte, fall back. I’m taking your place in the vanguard.”

“I can still fight.”

“No, you can’t! If you can stand, then get up and withdraw.”

Tarte stopped arguing. Doubtless she understood that she was a hindrance now.

I’d trained her better than to fail after only thirty minutes, but she was likely still adjusting to her Tuatha Dé eye. It’d worn her out.

I took Tarte’s place in the vanguard. While covering Tarte behind me, I turned toward an orc.

Tarte fought her hardest against a terrifying slew of enemies. I’ll have to praise her later.

“If you’re moving up here, who will take out the orcs in the back?” asked Naoise.

“If I don’t fight up here, the vanguard will break. I’ll fill in until Rachel and the professor get here.”

“We’ve been fighting our butts off. It’s about time they come and take our place.”

Naoise’s words were in jest, but I couldn’t deny he had it hard. He’d been fighting at the vanguard for half an hour.

Things only got worse from there.

Dia, pale-faced and on her knees, shrieked, “Lugh, our wall!”

“Guess that was all the punishment it could take.”

The orcs stuck outside the ravine hadn’t been waiting patiently in line. All the while, they’d been trying to smash our barricade.

That alone may not have been enough to bring it down. Unfortunately, Epona had unknowingly weakened the earthen structure with all her smashing.

The battle would have ended before the wall crumbled if the orcs’ numbers hadn’t increased from the original estimate. The fight was dragging on longer than Dia and I had built the wall to last. It was only a few moments from collapsing. We’d been too optimistic.

The orcs surged into the barricade. It collapsed, enabling us to see that the orcs’ numbers hadn’t changed at all since the beginning of the battle. With nothing to stop them, orcs charged in six at a time.

I’d known this was a possibility, but it was still a crushing blow to my morale.

We stood no chance against so many orcs at once. Dia and Tarte were also out of commission.

I couldn’t afford to hold back. If I didn’t use my full strength here, we were all going to die. I grabbed one of the Fahr Stones I’d brought as a last resort, and then it happened.

“Finally, a chance to rage to my heart’s content. Every. Last. One of you little goddamn maggots is so annoyinggggg. I’m going to kill you all!!”

An enraged Epona charged into the horde of orcs, which for most people would’ve only led to getting surrounded and beaten to a pulp. However, she just tossed the monsters aside as she laughed.

The giggling felt far more sinister than jovial. There was a distinct bloodlust to it.

This was what happened to Epona when, as she put it, her vision went red.

Naoise’s face stiffened, and Tarte and Dia cowered. Taking no notice of our stares, the savage beast that was the hero began to tear into its prey.

Chapter 17 | The Assassin Fails

Epona had no trouble overpowering the orcs. She beat them beyond recognition with nothing but her bare fists and the occasional fireball.

This isn’t a battle—it’s a one-sided slaughter.

Orcs were incapable of knowing fear, though, so they continued to throw themselves at Epona despite her clear advantage.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha, what the hell, th-there’s no way she’s even the same species as us. Why didn’t she just do that from the beginning? Epona would have been fine on her own. There was no reason for us even to be here,” said a shaking Naoise, struggling to force out the words.

Naoise had seen me fight Epona in mock battles many times, but this was the first time he’d seen Epona get serious, and her impossible strength left him trembling.

“Yeah, really. We could have sent in Epona alone, and they would’ve been wiped out a while ago without the need for any strategy,” I remarked.

“It sounds like you knew she could do this beforehand. If that’s the case, then why did you come up with all this—?”

Naoise was interrupted by an orc’s head that came flying toward us like a speeding bullet.

It was only because of the extra mana I’d put into my Tuatha Dé eyes that I could evade. I used my knife’s handle to deflect the incoming head, and it ended up embedded deep into the natural wall behind us.

If I’d tried to catch that, I would’ve lost an arm. That’s why I’d had no choice but to redirect the severed head. A direct hit would’ve seriously injured me, mage or not. Epona’s strength was so great that she’d sent a skull speeding at lethal velocity.

“That’s your answer. Fighting orcs is significantly less scary than getting caught up in a battle with Epona. I wanted to avoid a situation where Epona needed to get serious. Don’t let your guard down,” I cautioned.

“I just want to get out of here as fast as I can,” Naoise replied.

“Even with Epona going all out, deserting could lead to trouble. If running were permissible, I would’ve already done so,” I admitted.

I looked behind me to see Dia and Tarte resting on the ground, neither in any condition to defend herself. Until those two were safe, I had to protect them.

No matter how strong Epona was, she couldn’t deal with that many orcs all at once. Some of them were going to get past her. That was another reason I couldn’t leave.

Speak of the devil, here come some of the monsters now.

Two of the towering green creatures had slipped around Epona. Naoise and I gave each other a look, but Epona moved in before we could intercept the orcs.

“You piece of shit pigs! You think you can run from me?!”

Mana gathered in her right hand. Without an incantation, Epona launched a simple blast of magical power at one of the monsters.

Spells were mana given a kind of shape. The energy alone didn’t have much attack power. If using simple mana blasts was an effective method of attack, no one would’ve bothered with spells because of the incantation time required.

However, Epona’s attack had a colossal amount of power behind it, further strengthened by all of her S-Rank hero skills.

“No!”

That blast of mana was on course to hit the orc directly. Unfortunately, Dia and Tarte were right behind it. Epona’s attack would consume the monster and then continue and strike Dia and Tarte. Weakened as they were, they had no hope of dodging.

I jumped to the side, putting myself between the girls and the orc.

Should I use the full strength that I’ve been concealing at the academy? If I do that, I can block this without taking any damage… No, I can handle this without doing that.

I decided to continue concealing my full power, even if it risked me getting hurt.

Gathering mana, I hardened my monster-tissue underclothes. They were double layered. One was capable of stiffening to resist attacks, while the other was soft to absorb any impact. Pouring mana into the suit made it the ultimate defense.

Epona’s blast pierced through the orc as easily as I’d anticipated, and I caught it with my back.

My shoulders broke. I’d braced myself as best I could but was still sent flying through the air.

Overall, I’d taken it quite well. Ending up with only a few broken bones after stopping an attack from the hero was something to take pride in. My Rapid Recovery would mend my wounds in only a few minutes. I needed to change my trajectory, however. I was headed right for Dia and Tarte.

I turned Epona’s clump of mana toward the ground and fired it, using it to change my direction as I soared through the air. This altered my fall enough that I wasn’t going to land on the girls.

Unfortunately, I was definitely going to snap another bone or two when I hit the ground, but I didn’t mind that level of injury.

“Lord Lugh!”

Tarte got up and dashed forward to catch me, despite her ragged, mana-deficient state.

I crashed into her, and we both tumbled along the ground for a fair distance. When we at last came to a stop, Tarte was unconscious and bleeding from the mouth.

“Tarte!”

Why did she catch me?! She had to have known this would happen if she snatched me out of the air without any mana to strengthen herself.

It was an incredibly boneheaded thing to do. Tarte had only done it because she’d wanted to protect me. That was the sort of person she was.

I looked up and met Epona’s eyes. An expression of fear formed on her face after she looked at me.

She didn’t look anything like the battle rager from a moment ago. It was clear she was slowing down, but it hardly mattered. The orcs couldn’t so much as scratch her, even if they came at her with everything they had.

“I—I, I never intended… I didn’t mean to…,” Epona whimpered, begging me to believe her.

I understood that much. I blamed myself more than Epona. I’d known this could happen, and I’d formed a plan I thought would’ve been able to deal with it.

I was also conceited enough to believe that I could handle that blast of mana while keeping my own abnormally high power a secret. That arrogance had been what’d left Tarte collapsed on the ground. Knowing Tarte, I should’ve expected her to try to help me.

“I’ll do what I can to take out the ones that get through. Turn back around and fight!” I finally forced out.

I really should’ve said something like “Don’t worry about it. It was an accident.” I just couldn’t manage it, though. Seeing Tarte bloody and beaten had left me unable to think straight.

If I consoled Epona now, it would’ve sounded contrived. So that was all I could get myself to say.

After another fifteen minutes of fighting, the orcs were all dead. Our job done, we began to head back to the academy.

Epona wasn’t at quite the same level after the incident with Tarte, but she’d still been far beyond anything the orc army could’ve handled. More orcs slipped past her, but Professor Dune and Rachel finally stepped in to help.

What concerned me was that as soon as Epona started using her full power, the orcs’ numbers curiously waned. They’d been spawning infinitely from some unknown location until that point. Again, I had to consider the possibility that this had all been staged to gauge Epona’s capabilities.

Perhaps it’s a demon trying to learn what they’re up against and use that information to take her down. If we assume they threw away that many orcs as a sacrifice, then just how great is their real fighting strength?

I shook my head. This was hardly the time to be thinking about such things. Tarte’s treatment had to come first.

“Lugh, will Tarte be okay?” Dia asked worriedly.

“She’ll be fine. She has some bruises, bone fractures, and scratches, but I can heal all of that.”

“Thank goodness. I was worried after how far she flew through the air.”

We had a war doctor with us in the carriage, but I was more skilled, so I handled Tarte’s treatment. After taking care of anything that required immediate attention, I used my mana to strengthen her self-healing.

“Tarte’s complexion is looking much better,” Dia observed.

“Yeah, there’s no need to worry anymore,” I replied.

I patted Tarte on the head.

The curtain separating the bed from the other seats then opened.

“Um, I—I need to apologize,” Epona stated, avoiding my eyes all the while.

“…It was a very intense battle. It wasn’t your fault,” I assured.

Having sorted out my feelings, I finally let Epona know that I wasn’t upset with her.

“But I—I really hurt Tarte,” protested the hero.

“If you apologize, Tarte will forgive you.”

“I hope so. Um, sorry for injuring you too, Lugh. I let it happen again. Every time I fight on a battlefield, my vision goes red, and then I start to rage, and before I know it I’ve hurt everybody, so, so I…”

Epona’s fists were shaking.

“I wanted to change. I wanted to become strong enough to keep a clear head even in that wild state. After no one got hurt during our mock battles, I thought things would be okay today, but sure enough, it happened again…”

I’d been helping Epona ever since that promise during the Academy Festival after she’d opened up to me. Every time one of our sparring sessions ended safely, Epona got a little more confident.

“Also, I thought you’d be able to stop me if I lost control. Ah-ha-ha, I guess that was assuming too much. I’m sorry for that, too. I’m really not cut out to be the hero.”

With that final comment, Epona returned to her seat.

Dia gave a strained laugh.

“She doesn’t seem like a bad girl. She also thinks extremely highly of you.”

“Yeah.”

…She thought I would be able to stop her.

I thought back to what Epona and I had talked about during the Academy Market. I’d sworn not to die at her side and that I’d stop her if she ever lost control. Unfortunately, I’d failed. I’d chosen to conceal my full strength, and something terrible nearly happened.

“Dia, do you think I should apologize to Epona? I didn’t say anything too harsh, but I let my frustration over not being able to protect Tarte affect my attitude. I glared at her after Tarte lost consciousness,” I said.

“The Lugh I know would apologize,” Dia replied immediately.

“You’re right. I’ll apologize once she’s calmed down.”

I’d known the whole time that I was in the wrong here. It seemed I had some room for improvement. I’d grown more human in my second life, but that had allowed immaturity to affect my behavior.

I need to concentrate on one thing at a time.

“I should tell Tarte I’m sorry, too,” I thought aloud.

“If you feel for her, one kiss will do the trick, you know. That’ll be all it takes to put her in a good mood,” Dia remarked.

“You’re right. That’s what I’ll do,” I decided.

“Huh, I meant that as a joke, but you took it seriously?! You didn’t hesitate at all there, did you?! Have you and Tarte already been kissing?!” Dia exclaimed.

“…No we haven’t.”

Those mana-replenishing kisses were a secret.

“That’s not fair; you should kiss me, too. You haven’t kissed me at all recently, Lugh.”

For the rest of the ride back to the academy, Dia probed me about how far Tarte and I had gotten. Tarte woke up after we arrived, and before I could express my remorse to her, she apologized fervently to me. She even refused my offer to make it up to her. That being the case, I decided to give her a surprise present after a week or two.

I also had to seek out Epona and tell her I was sorry first thing tomorrow. The sooner that kind of thing was taken care of, the better.

Chapter 18 | The Assassin Apologizes

Unfortunately, I ended up not being able to apologize to Epona.

I had planned to catch her before classes began the day following the battle with the orcs. However, she’d already been summoned for another mission and had departed the academy. Unlike last time, Epona had gone off alone on this assignment. Naoise, Tarte, Dia, and I hadn’t even been told about it.

…The academy probably thinks less highly of us after that battle with the orcs.

Dia, Tarte, and I had lunch out in the courtyard. Tarte was humming as she poured us some tea.

“Are you sure you’re feeling better? I asked.

“Yes. You treated me all night long, my lord, so I’m in perfect shape.”

Tarte flexed her arms to prove her point. As she’d said, I’d stayed up until morning, speeding up her recovery and healing her injuries. Still, I was surprised to see how unruffled Tarte was. Wounds as bad as hers should’ve at least left her feeling tired. That bothered me more than any of her physical injuries.

Despite everything that’d happened, Tarte got up early and made our lunches as she always did. Even her mood seemed unaffected.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I pressed.

“Yes, I’ve never been better. I embarrassed myself yesterday. I’ll train even harder to prevent that from happening again! I need to master the eye you gave me,” she replied.

Whether enthusiasm or mana, I couldn’t say, but Tarte’s one Tuatha Dé eye shone visibly from behind its colored contact lens.

“I wonder if I’ll ever get those eyes,” Dia said, gazing at Tarte’s right eye in obvious jealousy.

“I’ll have to think about it. Tuatha Dé eyes are indeed useful, but you leak mana until you get used to them. You have a lot of mana, Dia, but the eyes might run you dry in a battle like yesterday’s. I’m not sure they’d suit you,” I explained.

“Hmm, yeah, I might not have mana to spare for the eyes at first, but I can learn to control it through practice, right? They’re also significantly better than normal eyes even when not enhanced by mana,” reasoned Dia.

“That’s true,” I replied.

“Then I do want them. If I get those eyes, I’ll have to get used to them as soon as possible. By the way, there’s something I don’t get. Even though Tarte has way less mana than me, I’ve never seen her collapse. She’s used to managing the eye now, but if she was leaking mana before, then how come she never had any trouble?”

Dia noticed. Can’t say I’m surprised.

“Oh, that? Lord Lugh has been regularly replenishing my mana. I’ve gotten much better at controlling the eye recently, though, so he hasn’t been doing it as often,” Tarte admitted.

Dia turned to me and smiled. Something was terrifying about that expression.

…This is bad.

I’d told Tarte not to tell anyone about the mana transfer spell because it was a secret House Tuatha Dé technique. I’d foolishly forgotten Dia was now part of the family and therefore privy to its knowledge.

“Hey, Lugh. I’ve never heard of a method capable of replenishing someone’s magical power. If you can do that sort of thing, why didn’t you use it on me during the battle yesterday? If you had, I would’ve been able to keep fighting.”

“Because it’s Tuatha Dé confidential information. I can’t just do it out in the open,” I shot back.

“Hmmm… But how would you do something like that in the first place? Linking mana wavelengths would be difficult to pull off, but not impossible… Even Lugh’s precise control of mana would probably drop to around twenty percent. Ah, but that wouldn’t matter with his near-limitless mana. The problem would be the method of transmission. Direct contact would be essential… To increase transmission efficiency and prevent the mana from transforming after the wavelengths are joined, that would be the only choice… I see how it is. Hmph, it’s not fair that you’ve only been doing that with Tarte.”

Dia was terrifying. She’d figured it all out after merely hearing I’d been replenishing Tarte’s mana.

“So, Lugh. I’ve been wanting to practice advanced spells that use a lot of magic power, but because advanced spells drain me very quickly, I never make much progress. I’ve been stuck,” Dia said.

“Got it. I’ll supply you with as much mana as you want,” I agreed, taking the hint.

“Yay! Hmm-hmm. I can’t wait. I can practice magic to my heart’s content and kiss Lugh at the same time… If you’re reluctant to do it that way, there is another method of direct mucous membrane contact we can use,” proposed Dia.

“You can’t do that until you get married!” interrupted a deeply blushing Tarte.

While Tarte wasn’t used to talking about that sort of thing, she still understood what Dia had been suggesting.

That method is actually more efficient, but I’ll keep quiet about that.

“Well, actually, let’s not use that one. I don’t want to upset Tarte. I’m also a little scared of it, so just keep it as something to look forward to in the future. Please kiss me to supply me with mana for now,” Dia decided.

It seemed I had no way out of this.

It’s not that I didn’t like kissing. I loved Dia, and kissing her was great, but there was a reason I’d been avoiding restoring her mana.

Namely, I knew it would be difficult to stop myself if I started up with her. Kissing Dia and stopping there was sure to be agony. Young bodies were so challenging to control.

“Back to what we were talking about before. You want those eyes, don’t you, Dia?” I asked.

“Of course. The ability to see mana would make controlling magic much easier. There is no doubt I would get better at spellcasting. You can normally only feel mana, so that would be very helpful. Detecting gathering magical power would also be useful to read the flow of battle from the rearguard. That’s likely to be my main use for them.”

Spoken like a real sorcerer. Being able to see mana was just as big of a boon as seeing objects moving at high speeds.

“All right, I’ll get ready for both of your surgeries,” I declared.

Thus it was determined that I would not only give Tarte her remaining Tuatha Dé eye, but I would also provide a pair to Dia. I was looking forward to seeing how this enhanced their growth.

Epona returned a week later and began avoiding me at every turn. It wasn’t just me, either. She also kept her distance from Dia and Tarte.

There was no doubting that something had happened while she was off on her solo mission.

I’d tried to approach Epona on multiple occasions, but she always ran away. She’d been skipping our study group, too. Left with no other choice, I decided to visit her room at night. If things continued as they were, I wasn’t going to have a chance to apologize.

Just as I was about to reach Epona’s room, a siren began to blare.

Does this mean the Royal Academy is under attack?

Attacking the school was insane. It was home to over one hundred mages. Even if some were inexperienced, that was still a massive force.

“…Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a force of monsters led by a demon.”

An announcement echoed throughout the dormitory. It said to gather in the cafeteria right away. It also mentioned that a horde of monsters was headed for the academy. It wasn’t just orcs this time, either. The incursion was comprised of many different species. This was shaping up to be a much larger battle than the last one.

“I knew those orcs were a trick.”

I’d been suspicious of that orc attack right from the get-go. They’d behaved very strangely, and it’d led me to believe their real purpose had been reconnaissance. If that was correct, it didn’t take much to guess what sort of information they’d been after.

The most probable answer was Epona’s weaknesses. Their goal was to break the hero, and they’d achieved it. That’s why those orcs had retreated when they did and why they were attacking the academy now.

Whoever was commanding the orcs must’ve deduced that Epona had trouble controlling her power and that it led to her hurting her allies in battle.

Epona was going to have a tough time fighting monsters in the academy. Undoubtedly, she was going to be afraid of hurting her peers.

“If we assume the goal of their attack is to weaken Epona, then we’re in trouble. Even one hundred mages won’t bother them if that’s all they care about.”

Monsters were beasts that acted on nothing more than instinct. Records showed that demons possessed higher intelligence, however. They could summon monsters and were very skilled commanders. Even so, I hadn’t expected an attack quite this bold.

“Epona!”

After hearing the siren, the hero had rushed out of her room, and I called out to her. She started to say something, swallowed the words, then searched for something else to say.

“I’m going ahead. Please fight as far from me as possible.”

She was still pushing me away.

“I’m sorry about before… Let’s fight together again. I’ll show you that I’m strong enough to handle it. You don’t have to go it alone.”

I didn’t want to be a burden to her anymore.

Epona ran off without turning around to face me.

I’d said what I’d needed to. Now I had to see my promise done. Given the invasion, I definitely had the chance.

Chapter 19 | The Assassin Searches

The army of monsters was drawing ever nearer, and the academy was understandably in an uproar.

Nearly all the students had gathered in the dining hall. The only ones not there were Epona and the top upperclassmen. One of the most prominent teams was already moving to intercept.

A professor went up on stage and began to speak.

“Everyone, I have gathered you all here for one reason. A force of monsters is currently targeting this academy. Hundreds of enemies are approaching from every way but the south, and their numbers are still increasing. It is a mixed force of orcs and goblins… There is almost certainly a demon among them.”

That much was obvious. Monsters couldn’t teleport, after all. Only the presence of a high-ranking demon capable of producing and commanding the creatures could explain the sudden appearance of an army.

“We have requested a dispatch of knights from the Royal Order, but it will take them at least half a day to get here. Unfortunately, our foes are nearly at our gates. This means we’ll have to do what we can with our current personnel.”

Help arriving in twelve hours was wishful thinking. The academy was already a stronghold and usually served the role of dispatching military strength. What’s more, if the school was under siege, then the royal capital was likely in danger as well. It seemed highly unlikely that any help would be coming for us when the kingdom’s rulers could be in peril.

“Students, steel yourselves. There is nowhere to run. This will be an all-out battle with no escape. Those who don’t have the strength to engage, find a different way to contribute. We can’t win unless everyone gives their all.”

A silence hung over the dining hall. Many of the first-years were trembling. It was hard to blame them, since they had suddenly been hurled into such a deadly situation.

The professor went on to explain that students were to act in groups. Each one would consist of five to ten underclassmen and one leading upperclassman.

The discovery of the demon was to be reported right away. Engaging with it was strictly forbidden. Only the hero was capable of killing one.

Groups were formed, and students gathered around their leaders—with a few exceptions.

“Unbelievable. We’re the only ones who don’t get the protection of an upperclassman,” I said with a little laugh.

Unlike other teams, Dia, Tarte, Naoise, and I were operating as our usual group, minus Epona.

“Personally, I don’t mind. The faculty probably feels they need to keep the most capable students together, and I think it’ll be easier this way,” replied Naoise. He was half bluffing with that statement. He’d lost his confidence in the battle the other day, and it was clearly still troubling him.

The upperclassmen had already received their orders. After relaying the instructions to their charges, they moved out.

My group was the only one left in the dining hall. No one had given us our assignment yet.

A professor walked up to us.

“I have a special mission for the four of you. I couldn’t say this in front of the regular students, but our defeat will be certain if this becomes a war of attrition. That means the hero is our only hope.”

Epona was an untiring machine of slaughter, but she could only be in one place at a time. Our enemies were marching on our door from every direction but the south, where the capital lay. There was undoubtedly no end to the monsters’ reinforcements. At best, an ordinary student could only keep up the fight for a few hours. Any group defending the academy without Epona’s help was sure to fall.

None of this was a coincidence. The demon had crafted its strategy to ensure this would happen.

“We only see one way to achieve victory. Before our defenses fail, the demon must be located, and the hero must kill it. As such, your mission is to find the demon,” the professor declared.

It was our only option. Stopping the demon would halt the supply of monsters.

I looked to Dia, Tarte, and Naoise, and we all nodded in acceptance.

“Understood. Professor, we will defend the academy and make finding the demon our number one priority,” I said.

“I’m counting on you.”

That team made entirely of upper-level students had probably been given the same mission.

We were stationed on the eastern side. Epona was defending the north. That was where most of the monsters were approaching. The rest of the academy’s strength had been divided evenly between the other two directions.

No enemies were approaching from the south, likely because the demon knew the royal capital would dispatch troops if they pressed in from that direction.

The capital wasn’t going to risk sending help when it needed to defend itself. Any hostile force between it and the academy could spur its knights into action, however. If the demons understood that much, it was clear they had a firm grasp of human thinking.

Two lines of defense had been established on the eastern side.

The first sat a reasonable distance ahead of the second and consisted only of upper-level students fighting furiously. They were skilled combatants, clearly at a level where they could’ve entered the Royal Order.

The senior students weren’t worrying about any monsters that managed to get by them. Instead, they focused on preserving their physical and mental stamina by trying not to overexert themselves. Any foes that broke past were dealt with by the second line of defense. It was comprised of younger students under the command of older ones.

They were performing very well in that formation. The upperclassmen were making great use of the inexperienced lowerclassmen, giving clear orders and only asking them to do things they were capable of.

“Wow, the senior students really are so reliable,” said an impressed Dia as she fired spells from behind the second line.

The upperclassmen weren’t just giving orders; they were providing support when necessary, too.

Dia, Tarte, Naoise, and I were fighting on the second line. After observing the situation, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

We should go ahead and move.

“Naoise, Dia, Tarte, let’s move up to the front line. We’re going to look for the demon using the method we discussed earlier,” I declared.

To pinpoint the location of the demon, we had to get to the front of the battle. That meant we’d be in greater danger, however.

“Okay, let’s go,” said Tarte.

“We need to do our part to help Epona,” responded Dia.

“I’d look like quite the cad if I backed down after hearing Dia and Tarte say such things. I’ll go, too… Following you seems like the best option anyway,” Naoise agreed.

These are reliable companions. With them by my side, fighting will be no problem.

Things were raging up on the front lines.

…These monsters are even stronger than the orcs from last time.

I used mana to enhance my physical strength. I usually increased my power to a level that matched a regular mage, but this time I pushed it to the very limits of what an average mage should’ve been capable of.

“Tarte, have you mastered both eyes yet?” I asked.

“Of course. I won’t fail like I did before. How about you, Lady Dia?”

“…I’m doing okay, too. I have them under control.”

I’d been worried about the side effects of their Tuatha Dé eyes. But Tarte had adapted to them, and Dia was an expert at mana control. I had no real cause for concern.

The four of us fought without any problems, even at the forefront of the battle. We weren’t any less skilled than the upperclassmen. If anything, we were better.

Our joining with the older students immediately shifted the battle’s tide on the eastern side to our favor. Many of our seniors turned to us and offered praise.

“I’d heard there were some real standouts among the first-years. You guys are terrific. Keep it up!”

“Thank you. Your support makes fighting a breeze,” I answered.

“Ha-ha-ha, protecting younger students is the duty of an upperclassman. But can you really keep fighting at that pace?”

As he said, my group was fighting with all our might. We weren’t pacing ourselves at all.

“Preserving our strength isn’t our goal. Our mission is to pinpoint the location of the demon, and we’re doing what we need to do to accomplish that,” I explained.

“So you’re hunting the leader… Hey, Granz, Bachal, Reina. Fight full strength for five minutes to help out these underclassmen! Given the current flow and momentum of the enemy, it will probably take another ten minutes.”

“Roger.”

“I’d thought about searching for the demon, too, but I never would’ve thought some younger students would be the ones to do it.”

“You guys are impressive for a group of first-years. Leave this to us.”

The upperclassmen stopped holding back and began to rip into the monsters with incredible force.

I’d barely said anything, and they’d figured out my entire plan. They truly were the best the academy had to offer.

Two hours passed, and the battle didn’t show any signs of slowing down.

The situation had been getting steadily worse all the while. Injuries were starting to pile up. The wounded would retreat from the battle, but that only put a more significant burden on those still fighting, which meant more casualties. No one could afford to make a single mistake or take a moment to rest.

The enemy was too strong, and their numbers were also great. Until we found the demon and alerted Epona to its location, we didn’t stand a chance of winning.

We can’t put it off any longer. The academy is lost unless we act now.

I’d already ordered Dia and Tarte to fight without holding back. I was also using my Rapid Recovery to kill monsters at a fast rate. That was part of the plan to locate the demon.

Wherever it was, the creature was producing a steady stream of monsters. Killing them wasn’t going to reduce their numbers. But thinking about this situation logically, what we were doing was the best way to pinpoint its location.

There was a good chance there was only one demon producing monsters. Any creatures it summoned were marching toward the academy from the demon’s location. We merely had to follow the path of monsters to find the one in charge.

I’d been searching for that course while fighting.

The enemy wasn’t stupid. They were taking precautions to conceal their location. To draw them out, I decided to create a situation that would force the demon to make a large number of monsters quickly. As such, my team was devoting itself to slaying as many orcs and goblins as we could.

My plan paid off almost immediately. Our target was summoning up new troops faster than they could cover their tracks. The road to the demon was now clear.

“Tarte, Dia, Naoise. I’m going to seek out the demon. Once I find it, I’ll send up the signal. You three stay here and support the front line,” I instructed.

“No, you can’t go alone, my lord. It’s too dangerous,” protested Tarte.

“I can only accomplish this alone. Tracking the enemy requires the skill of my primary profession,” I stated.

To find the demon, I would have to charge headfirst into the opposing army and slip behind enemy lines. Naturally, fighting through every monster on the way would’ve been impossible.

My experience as an assassin told me it was better that I took on this challenge alone.

“I can’t believe I’m getting left behind again, but I’ll protect the academy so you have somewhere to return to, my lord,” Tarte agreed.

“I’ll be angry if you come back hurt,” Dia chided.

“You can count on me. By the way, I know this isn’t the best time, but could you both kiss me for good luck? It turns out I’m feeling a little scared at the thought of charging into their army,” I said.

“Yes, of course.”

“You’re hopeless, Lugh.”

I kissed both Tarte and Dia, replenishing their mana in the process.

Being nervous had just been an excuse. The two girls had been pushing themselves very hard and had exhausted much of their magical power. A few pecks disguised as gestures of good fortune were all it took to bring them back to full capacity.

I admittedly felt strange kissing in the middle of a battlefield, but it was preferable to leaving Tarte and Dia low on mana.

“All right, I’m off.”

“Good luck!”

“When you come back, let’s have a normal kiss, okay?”

I smiled at the girls, then took a deep breath and took off at a run. I hurried forward into the enemy army, darting between the monsters.

Suddenly, I found myself struck by a sense of curiosity.

I wonder what sort of creature the demon is.

Chapter 20 | The Assassin Decides to Help

Following the path that new groups of monsters were traveling, I closed in on my quarry. Using the blood of felled orcs and goblins, I disguised my scent and kept as far out of sight as possible without losing the trail.

My approach was both daring and cautious. Getting caught now would’ve put me in the direst situation imaginable. Catching the eye of even a single monster meant dealing with an endless stream of them that would surely overwhelm me.

It was a terrifying thought.

After running for about three kilometers, I finally found it.

The demon resembled an orc but possessed a few distinguishing features. It was wearing armor made from a magical beast’s skin, and its body was riddled with old scars. Its white hair and long beard gave it the appearance of a grizzled veteran who’d seen many battles.

Most startling was its detached jaw. Orcs and goblins were crawling from its gaping mouth. It was a grotesque sight, to say the least.

“That is really unpleasant to look at.”

Evidently, this was the method by which the demon was creating new monsters.

I pulled a signal flare out of my pouch. It was a special item given to those who’d been tasked with finding the enemy army’s leader.

I lit the fuse. The end of the thing flew upward and exploded with red light. It quite resembled a firework.

That will be visible from kilometers away. Epona should be here soon.

The problem was…

“I suppose this was bound to happen.”

Every orc and goblin in my vicinity was bearing down on me now.

The flare alerted the hero to this location, but it also broadcasted my site to the enemy. I could’ve stayed safe by launching the signal from farther away, but that would’ve meant a less accurate beacon.

To make matters worse, I couldn’t run. If this demonic, grizzled orc moved, then this all would’ve been for naught. I had no choice but to stay and watch it.

The agile goblins closed in on me by swinging like monkeys from the branches of surrounding trees. When the first one leaped at me, I threw a knife at its forehead, piercing through it and two others and knocking them all out of the air.

Thankfully, the surrounding forest limited the giant orcs’ maneuverability. That afforded me enough time for an incantation.

“Firestorm!”

The flames of my spell burned right through the orcs’ thick hides. I’d trapped all of the heat inside the storm by increasing the spell’s precision, creating a cage to prevent any flames from escaping.

Two more orcs crumpled into smoldering piles.

Unfortunately…

“It’s like a drop in the ocean.”

There were still hundreds of monsters. Killing a few of them at a time wasn’t going to accomplish anything.

Closing my eyes, I retrieved a flash grenade and threw it at my feet.

The world was bathed in white. I used that moment to run and hide.

While the orcs and goblins tried to search for me, it didn’t seem like they were very good at sniffing out concealed opponents.

…All right, I’ll hide right here until the great hero arrives.

I moved from one obscured spot to the next, keeping an eye on the demon all the while. My discovery seemed unlikely.

Something was odd, however. The demon appeared intelligent. It should’ve understood that my flare had been a signal for the hero. Curiously, it didn’t seem to care, though. I had to observe it carefully. The creature was definitely up to something.

As I watched, I realized monsters were returning from the front lines.

I looked closely and realized those orcs that’d come from the forefront were carrying something. It appeared to be a big sack, and whatever was inside it was occasionally moving.

On the demon’s order, the monsters opened the sack, revealing a group of students who’d been paralyzed by some sort of poison.

“So that’s what they’re planning.”

Orcs already could increase their numbers by kidnapping females and impregnating them. The demon had used that instinct to make them collect students…to use as shields.

This was how the demon intended to exploit Epona’s weakness. It was a strategy built to capitalize on Epona’s fear of harming her allies.

Even after being discovered, the demon hadn’t retreated because it wanted to face the hero.

…This is bad. Can I save the students before Epona gets here?

“If there were one or two students, I’d be able to pull it off. But twenty-three of them…”

It was impossible. Killing those orcs surrounding the hostages was simple enough, but I couldn’t grab over twenty people and carry them out.

A sudden explosion caught my attention.

“I finally found you—my enemy. I will kill you and fulfill my duty. I’ll become a real hero. I’ll protect the Alvanian Kingdom just like I promised Mireille I would.”

Epona had left a path of destruction in her wake. Everything around her had been mowed down. Craters burst into the earth with each of her steps. Her strength was as unbelievable as ever.

The horde of orcs laughed, and the orc that looked like a war veteran—the demon—walked forward.

“The hero is still but a child, green and unskilled.”

“You’re not wrong, but that won’t stop me from accomplishing what I’ve come here to do.”

“Oh-hooo, you are brave. I’d give you my name as a reward for making it this far, but a human wouldn’t be able to comprehend it. I suppose I’ll settle for a rough translation. I am General Orc, the most powerful orc of all.”

It seemed a fitting name for a leader of orcs and goblins.

“I’m Epona, the hero.”

“Oh-ho-hooo. Epona. I will remember it. Let’s have ourselves some fun, hero. I was hoping to give my side an advantage before everyone else wakes up.”

General Orc’s words were nonchalant, but they undoubtedly held some significance.

What’s he playing at? While I was considering that question, the battle began.

The horde of burly orcs rushed at Epona.

Even such gigantic creatures were no match for the hero. Epona swung an arm as if swatting away a fly in annoyance. The motion spilled the innards of several orcs at once. Then she used a simple blast of raw mana to send everything around her flying in all directions.

Her strength was overwhelming. For some reason, however, General Orc began to laugh and summon more monsters.

Epona’s movements grew clumsy. The orcs brought out the kidnapped students to use as shields. They’d tied the students to their hideous stomachs.

“You coward!” Epona exclaimed.

“This is strategy. Monsters can’t afford to fight fair against the hero, you know,” General Orc said with raucous delight.

Epona continued to fight, taking care to avoid injuring our captured classmates.

While Epona was an unskilled fighter—both due to her inexperience and her absurd strength—her strong defenses usually made up for that.

“Hmm, I thought you’d understand this without me having to spell it out, but…you seem like you don’t get it. Stop fighting, or else.”

General Orc gave a signal, and an orc bit off a male student’s head, killing him.

Epona ground her teeth and glared at the demon, but she didn’t stop fighting.

“Hmm, the hero sheds no tears.”

“If I lose, you’ll kill them anyway.”

I’d thought for sure the tender and meek Epona would’ve surrendered after seeing something so gruesome, but she grasped the reality of the situation quite clearly. She was right in thinking the students were dead if she gave herself up. It was better not to concern herself with the hostages.

She didn’t look at all like the person who’d been wracked with guilt after hurting Tarte in the last battle. It wasn’t her allies getting hurt that Epona found so unpleasant. It was them dying by her hand that she despised.

“Gah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, yes, yes, yes! It seems like you’re not such a fool after all. But why are your movements becoming so clumsy?” General Orc needled.

The orcs with hostages tied to them moved forward.

Epona fought awkwardly as she tried to avoid the captives.

Epona’s great fear only comes from killing people herself.

Her expression betrayed her thoughts to me. Epona was hoping the monsters would kill the hostages so she could go all out.

The longer the fight raged on, the stranger Epona’s behavior became. Every step was less graceful than the last. Her eyes were shining, and a smirk was spreading across her face. I could see her mana increasing, and her muscles were bulging.

She’s drunk on blood and battle.

“YOU’RE SOOOO ANNOOOOYYYIIIIIIIING!”

Epona swung her fist as hard as she could, piercing through both an orc and a hostage.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I—I DID IT AGAIN!”

After Epona’s scream, the orcs charged at her, brazenly thrusting the hostages forward. Instinctively, she counterattacked, killing more students.

Epona’s face went pale, and she began to shake.

…She has some skill that causes her to lose reason when fighting, and the shock of killing people brings her out of it.

Epona vomited before collapsing to the ground. It was clear she couldn’t continue fighting.

“There’s no way I can just sit back and watch,” I said.

Saving the hostages on my own would’ve been impossible. However, Epona’s presence made it possible. I hadn’t just been idly watching. I’d been working on a plan and waiting for the best time to leap in and save the captives.

The time had come for me to join Epona. I’d already broken my promise once, and I wasn’t about to do it again. I still had to apologize to her, after all.

Chapter 21 | The Assassin Comes to the Rescue

Hurriedly, I began an incantation.

“Arrange!”

Twenty guns popped out from the Leather Crane Bag. It was enough firepower to save the remaining hostages and then some. I set them in midair using magnetism from earth magic.

After careful research on the Leather Crane Bag, I’d discovered how to draw out the exact quantity of the items I wanted from its depths.

I’d selected guns over cannons so as not to harm the captives.

The barrels were filled with Fahr Stones crushed down into a powder. The amount of force packed into a single rifle required delicate adjustment. Even the slightest error in volume risked causing an explosion when fired.

Rifles were superior to heavy armaments when it came to accuracy and maneuverability. Their smaller firing force also meant lower recoil, which enabled me to use them while they were hovering instead of rooting them to the ground.

They were the perfect choice for my current situation.

“Aim!”

Using magnetism, I leveled each of the barrels at their respective targets.

Aiming twenty rifles at once would’ve been impossible for an ordinary mage. Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth had allowed my brain to become capable of more than any regular person, so it was no problem for me.

The guns locked onto their targets, accounting for environmental factors.

“Rifle Volley!”

After pouring mana into it, the Fahr Stone powder in each barrel reached its critical point, causing the guns to fire. Every shot blasted off the head of one of the orcs with a hostage tied to it.

It was an extremely powerful and precise attack that not even the hero could pull off.

Blood and gray matter splattered everywhere. The now-headless orcs collapsed one after another.

I’d also launched a bullet at General Orc’s head, thinking I might get lucky. While it struck his head, that’s all it did. He was as tough as you would’ve expected a demon to be.

“Epona! Gather the hostages!” I yelled. It was impossible for me to carry all the hostages and escape, but I could definitely handle killing orcs while Epona gathered up our classmates and fled.

“Lugh?”

“Quickly!”

Still pale, Epona collected all of the hostages. The orcs tried to get to them first, but Epona was significantly swifter.

With them out of the way, she would be able to fight without any issues.

The cost of saving them had been exposing one of my secret attacks in front of my assassination target, but it was a fair trade. It’d been the only way to save Epona and the hostages.

“Oh-ho-hooo, this is unexpected. You’re the boy who raised the signal flare. You’ve ruined my plan. But ah well. On to the next one. This is checkmate. Hoh-hoh-hoh.”

General Orc turned around and took off running, moving at an unbelievable speed considering his sluggish appearance. Then, as if to ensure their leader got away, the remaining orcs charged at us.

…Everything up to this point suggested their goal was to kill Epona. What are they planning?

The time for pondering was later. I had monsters to slay.

“Epona, what are you doing? Finish off these small fries and go after the demon. As long as he is alive, the enemies will keep coming,” I insisted.

“Y-yeah, I know. I know that, but…”

Epona tried to move forward but only vomited again. She looked at the rescued hostages. Evidently, she was still recovering from having killed a few.

…It looks like I won’t be able to rely on her.

“Okay, then rest right there. I’ll kill these orcs,” I declared.

“UGAAAAAAAA!”

“GROOOOOOOUUUGGHR!”

Sixty guns emerged from my bag. That was the maximum I was capable of controlling at once. I prepared another Rifle Volley.

After revealing this technique to the hero, there was no reason to hold back on it anymore.

It only took me a few minutes to wipe out all of the orcs. However, we’d completely lost sight of General Orc.

“I had no idea you were this powerful,” remarked Epona with a tired expression on her face.

“…More importantly, we’ve lost sight of the demon. I’m going to see if I can find him,” I replied.

I strengthened my Tuatha Dé eyes to their limit and climbed the tallest tree I could find. It didn’t take long to spot where General Orc had scurried off to.

He said he had a follow-up plan… I see. So that’s what he meant.

Unconsciously, I bit my lip at the sight of it.

“They’re gathering their scattered strength into one spot. I can’t believe how many there are.”

Fearing being wiped out by the hero, the monsters had abandoned a three-pronged strategy and were instead gathering together as one force. Together, they marched slowly toward the academy with General Orc at the center of it all.

In response, the academy was gathering what remained of its forces to meet the impending attack.

In less than ten minutes, things were going to descend into an all-out battle. And that’s exactly what the demon wanted. General Orc knew Epona couldn’t handle harming her compatriots and aimed to create a chaotic brawl where that would be unavoidable.

I conveyed the situation to Epona.

“Go, Epona. If you don’t, everyone in the academy will be killed.”

Even after hearing that, Epona still didn’t move.

I pulled her by the hand, but she knocked mine aside.

“I can’t do it. I’ll only hurt more people in a fight like that, and I won’t be able to battle properly. I’ll get more and more heated, I’ll lose myself, and I’ll go blind to my surroundings and kill again. Just like I killed Mireille!! I’ll kill everyone, even you, Lugh!”

Epona sank to the ground.

“Did you forget my promise? I won’t die. And if you should lose yourself, I’ll stop you.”

“That’s impossible. You can’t stop me, Lugh. You didn’t last time, did you? Nobody can stop me. I don’t want to kill anymore,” Epona whimpered, smiling at me through tears.

…That’s right. I did fail last time. I’d said I would stop Epona, but then I was unable to, and Tarte got hurt. I gathered my thoughts with a deep breath and readied myself.

At this rate, our school was going to be overwhelmed. Tarte, Dia, and all my classmates would be killed. The hero was our only hope of victory.

But Epona couldn’t get up. No matter what I said, she wasn’t going to stand.

If words aren’t enough, I’ll show her with actions and sincerity.

“Can you give me one more chance? This time, I will keep my promise. To tell the truth, I’ve been holding back my real strength. Just watch. I’ll show you that I am strong enough to stop you.” With that, I took off running.

I strengthened myself to the max.

Using my near-limitless mana, I discharged as much as I could at once. My body housed at least ten times the magical power of a regular mage, and I was using all of it to boost my strength.

I can’t be reluctant to show my full strength anymore.

“Amazing, so this is Lugh’s power,” muttered Epona. She had to understand now that my promise hadn’t been a bluff.

I still hadn’t done enough for her to trust me, though. I was going to use my full strength to wipe out the orcs. Even if killing the demon proved impossible, I wanted Epona to know I could handle the rest.

Hopefully, that would restore the hero’s trust in me. If it did, she could take down the demon.

To protect Dia and Tarte and to keep the promise I’d made to my friend Epona, I was ready to play every card in my arsenal. It didn’t matter if the hero knew all my tricks. I would just make new ones.

Chapter 22 | The Assassin Shows His Real Power

I ran toward the army of monsters, Epona following behind me silently. She wanted to make sure I could keep my oath.

In the middle of my sprint, I began an incantation.

Engaging such an enormous army head-on was suicide. That’s why I was going to use the most destructive magic I had.

The rods from God—Gungnir.

Gungnir’s biggest weakness was that it took ten minutes to land because it had to free-fall from one thousand kilometers up in the air. That long timer made precise aiming impossible. Unless the target was someone as powerful as the hero, a direct hit wasn’t really required.

I released a tungsten spear into the sky in preparation.

My inexhaustible supply of mana was enough to allow me to fire multiple spears. I continued to launch god spears into the air as I ran toward the enemy army.

I came to a stop about four hundred fifty meters away. Any closer than that, and I risked getting caught in my own attack.

The orcs and goblins continued their advance on the academy, unaware of my plan.

While it was risky, I needed to attract their attention toward me. If the monsters pressed any closer to the school, my attack could harm those defending it.

This is the most power I can wield without harming my allies.

“I won’t hold back!”

I pulled a Fahr Stone out of my pouch and filled it to its critical point. I produced a bow and some arrows with magic, attached the Fahr Stone to one shaft, and fired.

“Take that!”

I pulled hard on the tough bowstring explicitly made for use in my physically enhanced state and launched the Fahr Stone arrow over four hundred fifty meters. It landed in front of the advancing monsters and exploded.

The Fahr Stone was filled with 70 percent fire mana, 20 percent wind mana, and 10 percent earth mana. After it detonated, flames burst forth, wind fanned the fire, and iron shrapnel flew in all directions.

Dozens of orcs and goblins were slaughtered. Any explosion brought about by mana equivalent to that of three hundred ordinary mages combined was going to cause some real damage.

Remaining in place, I fired one Fahr Stone after another. All of them were aimed at the enemy’s front line, just like the first one.

Shots toward the center of the army would’ve killed more monsters, but my goal was to slow their advance, not wipe them out. The loud bursts were also a warning for everyone at the academy to stay back. If they got any closer, they were going to die to Gungnir.

Just as I’d intended, the monsters and the academy forces stopped in their tracks. While crying out in strange voices, the orcs and goblins turned toward the source of all this destruction—me.

I’d used up all of the Fahr Stones in my pouch. I needed to replenish them with more from my Leather Crane Bag. More importantly, however, the time for my trump card had arrived.

“Eat this! The rods from God… Gungnir!”

A spear sped down from the heavens. Upon landing, it tore apart the earth, creating a radial impact crater with a bottom deeper than could be seen with the naked eye. A tsunami of dirt poured out from the point of collision.

If an object with a mass of one hundred kilograms fell from a height of one thousand kilometers in the sky, it would accelerate to a speed of four thousand kilometers per second, making it the ultimate projectile.

America had once attempted to develop such a weapon as a successor to the nuclear bomb. I’d successfully realized that theory using my magic. It was my most potent killing move.

Not even scraps remained of any monster caught within a one-hundred-meter radius of the spear. Even those orcs and goblins farther away were swept up by the shock wave and crushed beneath waves of sediment.

And that was only the first blow. Down came a second, third, fourth, and the rest of the remaining nine god spears I’d fired into the sky. The impact points had been calculated such that none of the monsters would be able to escape.

“So this is Lugh’s true strength. Not even I can do anything like that,” Epona said from behind me. I even sensed some fear in her voice.

Now there’s something to brag about. Not just anyone could’ve gotten the hero to say something like that.

Unfortunately, it’d taken exposing the most powerful attack I had to do it. Everything I revealed was only going to make assassinating Epona more difficult in the future.

There’d been no other choice, though. I had to protect those dear to me, and I was still hopeful I could find a way to save the world without killing Epona.

I could handle the small fries myself. But demons were another story. If Epona didn’t recover, the world was doomed. I wanted to safeguard Dia, Tarte, and this academy.

“How in the world did those monsters survive that…?”

When the aftermath of Gungnir cleared, I spied eight figures slowly clawing their way out of the dirt. All it took was a look to know they were superior to average orcs.

These might be the rumored Elite Monsters. Considering we hadn’t seen them until now, it seemed like General Orc had been saving them as a last-ditch effort. Only a direct hit from Gungnir could’ve killed them.

I’d been expecting as much, however.

I took out my Leather Crane Bag.

“Arrange!”

From its depths, I called up multiple giant cannons.

These cannons made the guns I’d used to rescue the hostages look like toys. Their 120 mm barrels were the size of tank artillery, and the pedestals they were sitting on were spiked into the ground. Rather than Fahr Stones broken into powder to lessen their force, the massive cannons were filled with full-size Fahr Stones, each containing the mana of three hundred ordinary mages.

As thick as it was, my prototype cannon couldn’t handle the explosions of full-size Fahr Stones. But these new models were different. I’d increased the thickness, improved the alloy, and used some spells to strengthen them. They were durable weapons capable of enduring Fahr Stone explosions.

The cannons took time to produce, but with the Leather Crane Bag, I could prepare them beforehand and carry them around, enabling me to use them in battle.

“Aim!”

At my magical command, my battery leveled its barrels at the eight surviving Elite Monsters.

The dim-witted orcs faced me. As if confident they were impervious, they didn’t try to dodge.

…It does make sense that they would have that level of confidence in their defense. They survived Gungnir, but only because they weren’t hit dead-on. They’re overestimating themselves.

“Cannon Volley!”

The cannons fired simultaneously, using entire Fahr Stones as gunpowder. In other words, three hundred mages’ worth of mana was converted directly into a destructive force. Rather than a bomb, that energy was concentrated into individual cannon shells. The area of effect was slimmer than Gungnir, but cannons were more suited for picking off a few targets anyway.

Among my easy-to-use spells, this one boasted the most force. The proof of that was right before our eyes.

Each of the eight Elite Monsters was pierced through its abdomen, and the force of the impact ripped them all to shreds.

In mere moments, they were dead. I alone had eradicated an entire army that had caused terrible pain and suffering for the academy.

I turned around and smiled at Epona.

“Certain circumstances had forced me to conceal my strength previously, but this is the real me. Allow me to make the promise from that day one more time. You won’t kill me. If you start to rampage, I will use my full strength to stop you. Do you trust me?”

Epona opened her mouth to reply.

Then…I leaped backward as far as I could.

A giant metal club swung down onto the spot where I’d been standing. General Orc was the one wielding it.

Despite his fearsome size and strength, he’d managed to hide his presence, dive into the dirt, and travel underground to take me by surprise. He may have looked like an orc, but he was quite the clever foe.

“Aww, I thought I was going to kill you there. Do you ever let your guard down, you little brat?”

“You could learn a thing or two from me in that regard.”

Assassins never let their guard down. General Orc could try to hide as much as he liked, but my eyes could see mana. I’d spotted him slinking toward me from below the earth. I’d even had time to prepare a counterattack.

The moment I dodged his metal club, I threw a Fahr Stone at its critical point into his dumb, gaping mouth, where it promptly exploded.

No matter how strong this demon was, he couldn’t endure the force of a Fahr Stone detonating inside his head unharmed.

General Orc’s head was blasted off his shoulders.

However…

“You almost got me there. If you’d been the hero instead of that pathetic female, you probably would’ve killed me. But unfortunately for you, you’re just a lowly human.”

His head regenerated an instant after I’d blown it up.

It wasn’t just some cheap healing factor; there was something unusual about it. Whatever it was, it seemed only the hero could kill a demon.

Demons had bodies, but their own essences sustained them. Their physical forms could regenerate endlessly unless that energy was snuffed out. Only Epona was capable of such a feat.

“Epona, you need to fight! Do you still not trust me after everything I just showed you?” I asked.

“But I…”

“You’re acting quite calm for being in the middle of a battle. You’re going to regret that.”

With the characteristic strength of an orc, General Orc began to swing his tree-trunk-sized club around.

The speed of his attacks defied common sense, and despite being able to see them, I could only barely dodge them.

While General Orc’s strikes appeared crude, nothing could’ve been further from the truth. Despite the excessive force of the demon’s downward swings, he was still able to stop in the middle of them and change his club’s direction. Such an ability made General Orc’s movements challenging to predict and nerve-racking to deal with.

I would’ve been hit long ago if I was only relying on my own power. The only reason I was able to evade was that I’d taken a drug to remove the limiter on my brain. My physical capabilities had been boosted by a combination of a particular chemical and a mana supply that was a thousand times as much as the average person.

That medicine was yet another one of the secrets I’d been hoping to save for the hero.

I’m not going to be able to push myself like this for much longer.

General Orc’s club landed right at my feet. I’d skirted death, but the rush of air knocked me backward. In response, I hurled an envenomed titanium knife, and it stuck into the demon’s thigh.

“Ooh, I didn’t think there was a poison that could render me immobile. But all I have to do is remove the affected flesh. Like so.”

General Orc tore off his leg. A new one quickly sprouted in its place, and the demon charged at me.

This is getting bad. Rapid Recovery kept me from being physically exhausted, but I didn’t know how long my concentration was going to last.

I wasn’t fighting to defeat General Orc. I was fighting to gain Epona’s trust.

Before I got beaten to a pulp, I had to show the hero I was strong so that she’d choose to fight.

This isn’t going to be easy.

Chapter 23 | The Assassin Gains the Hero’s Trust

I’d routed an army of hundreds of monsters, and now there was only one left. Unfortunately, it was a battle I couldn’t win.

“You are clearly not a knight, boy. You don’t fight by the rules, and you show no mercy. This is fun. I wonder how you’ll kill me this time.”

With pure joy on his face, General Orc came at me again.

I’d been changing up my killing method throughout the battle. Thus far, I should’ve slain General Orc ten times. I’d cut him, beaten him, strangled him, stabbed him, punched him, poisoned him, bombed him, crushed him, burned him, and shot him.

What enabled me to kill him so many different ways was the Leather Crane Bag Maha had acquired for me. Not a single one of the demon’s deaths had stuck, however. Each time, he immediately revived and chased after me as though nothing had happened. I was running out of techniques.

“Wind Cage!”

I performed an original incantation of mine, and the spell manifested. It allowed me to manipulate the air to create a cage around my target. While that didn’t sound too impressive, it was quite problematic for the one trapped within.

I filled the cage with carbon dioxide. If a person were placed into a closed space filled with nothing but carbon dioxide, all of the oxygen in their body would be immediately released, causing instant suffocation.

This was yet another tactic I’d devised to kill the hero. No matter how strong Epona was, she needed to breathe like any other human. That meant she’d die if denied oxygen. Hopefully, the same was true of demons.

General Orc’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he died.

I jumped back to gain distance and catch my breath. I’d been giving everything I had for a while now, even going so far as to take a drug to remove my brain’s natural limits. I’d expended a significant amount of stamina and mana, and I was sporting quite a few injuries as well.

Rapid Recovery raised my skill level and multiplied my recovery rate by one hundred twenty, but that didn’t mean I was a limitless font of energy. In one second, I regained what anyone else would’ve in one hundred twenty seconds. If I expended stamina faster than I could recover, I’d collapse.

For a while now, I’d been fighting at a rate that outpaced my Rapid Recovery.

“That was a first. I’ve never died without even understanding how it happened. But you’re never going to be able to finish me off.”

Unsurprisingly, General Orc returned to life. I’d been observing him very carefully throughout our struggle.

“…Well, if that’s what you think, then come at me,” I beckoned with a thin smile.

I’d been intentionally testing a variety of killing methods on him. Each time, I carefully studied the way he resurrected by using my Tuatha Dé eyes. My hope was that I’d discover the mechanism behind his immortality after watching the fluctuations in his mana with each different death.

Demonology books explained a demon’s healing factor in abstract terms, like “reincarnation brought about by the creature’s power of existence.” I didn’t intend to take such vague scripture at face value. There had to be some sort of quantifiable rule. If I could figure it out, then I could kill General Orc.

…I really don’t want to give up. I disliked the idea of dying simply because Epona never chose to do anything. That’s why I’d been working on my own path to victory. I even had a contingency strategy if I genuinely couldn’t take down General Orc.

At this pace, I was only going to be able to fight for fifty more seconds. A moment’s hesitation meant certain doom.

It looked like I only had one thing left that I could do—retreat while I still had the strength to do so, then hide and recover. After that, I’d return to the academy, gather Dia and Tarte, and escape. If I enacted that option within the next twenty seconds, I was sure I could pull it off.

Ten more seconds…

“You look like you’re up to something. You’d better make this fun!”

Looking every bit the predator, General Orc brought his metal club down at me as if it were the only thing he knew how to do.

My time’s up. I’ll dodge this and run.

I read the trajectory of the club, but I ended up not needing to dodge it.

“Lugh, you’ve made your strength clear.” Epona caught the demon’s weapon. No matter how hard he tried, General Orc couldn’t even get it to budge. “You are strong. You still can’t stop me…but you might be able to kill me. Promise me one thing. If I ever become a monster, kill me. If you promise me that, I’ll be able to fight.”

I grinned. That was exactly what I’d been planning to do from the start.

Until there was no other course of action left but to slay Epona, I had vowed to be her friend. On that day in the cemetery, I’d chosen to find a way to save the world without ending her life.

“You think you can have a chat in front of me?!”

General Orc summoned another metal club from out of nowhere and swung it down. It collided with Epona’s head and immediately shattered.

“You’re getting on my nerves.”

Epona grabbed General Orc’s arm and hurled him into a stone wall.

A crimson haze surrounded Epona.

I know this skill. It was the S-Rank skill Berserk. Setanta, the man in Soigel who I’d suspected of being the hero, had used it.

A man using Berserk grew horns and had their muscles swell. A woman using the skill was enveloped in a fiery aura.

“Lugh, can you promise you’ll kill me?” asked Epona, repressing the influence of Berserk, which could cause her to lose her mind at any second.

“I promise. If you ever become a monster, I’ll put you down. I’ll even let you in on a secret of mine. I am an assassin, so that kind of thing is my specialty,” I admitted.

Epona smiled. A was an expression full of childlike innocence.

Because she decided to trust me, I decided to reveal my true identity to her as a friend.

“That puts me at ease.”

Epona turned to face General Orc, who was slumped on the ground before the wall. She walked toward him slowly, step by step, gradually increasing her power along the way.

The red haze burned hotter and hotter. As Epona’s infinite power rose, her face became increasingly twisted with insanity.

She clenched her fists tight.

“Wh-what is this power? Even for the hero, this level of strength should be… No way…you’re not an imitation—you’re the original.”

There was panic on General Orc’s face for the first time.

“Don’t come near meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

He opened his big mouth to spawn more orcs and goblins, made them rush at Epona, and then tried to flee.

However, the orcs and goblins didn’t even slow Epona down for a second. The moment any made contact with Epona’s aura, they vanished without a trace.

I doubt even the bullets from my Cannon Strike would be able to make it through that crimson glow. I’m not even sure Gungnir would make it.

Once Epona entered that state, there was no chance of killing her. I wouldn’t even be able to touch her.

“I already can’t contain myself… Kee-hee-hee-hee-hee, I’ll crush you with everything I have.”

Epona focused her power into her fist.

“STOPPPPPPPPPP!”

“AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”

General Orc’s scream was lost amid Epona’s laughter.

Before Epona’s all-out attack even made contact, General Orc disappeared utterly, and a red shock wave carved its way through the ground.

I flooded as much mana into my eyes as I could and observed. General Orc’s body evaporated like water, and then a red jewel-like thing shattered, ending his existence.

I’d now seen how to kill a demon. After comparing it to the various ways I’d tried, I finally understood how it worked.

That red jewel was General Orc’s true form, but of course, getting to it and destroying it was no easy task. The hero possessed some special characteristic that enabled her to reach it.

“Good thing Epona decided to throw her fist forward,” I remarked.

If she’d struck the ground with that much force, it undoubtedly would’ve caused more destruction than Gungnir.

All right, time for my final job.

Epona was looking up at the sky with bloodshot eyes, roaring with laughter. I hit her with a Cannon Strike to the chin that knocked her unconscious.

“I promised I would kill her, but it looks like I didn’t need to this time.”

That was a close call. Epona had lost all sense of reason. If she’d been allowed to do as she pleased, I doubted the academy would’ve survived. That was why containing her power was so important.

Cannon Strike only got through because I’d hit Epona the moment after she’d released her heat haze during her all-out attack.

Even when she was not surrounded by that burning aura, the most my powerful Cannon Strike could do to the hero was knock her unconscious. It was ludicrous.

As strong as she was, I had the perfect opportunity to end her now that she was out cold.

I looked down at Epona. One strike to her vitals with Gungnir was likely all it would take to snuff out her life.

But I’d decided not to do that.

“Even if I don’t attempt it, I’ve already proven I can kill her,” I said to myself.

Knocking her out after she’d exhausted her power was all it took to get her defenseless. After that, it was just a matter of choosing which of my ace attacks to use. I’d made an important discovery today.

I picked Epona up and began to walk back to the academy. Before she woke up, I wanted to tell everyone she was the one who’d wiped out all the orcs. If it got out that I was capable of such a thing, it would undoubtedly cause me unnecessary trouble.

Epilogue | The Assassin Leaves the Academy

While carrying Epona on my back, I looked around at the devastation of the surrounding area. My god spears had altered the terrain significantly. This marked the first appearance of a demon in this era, and it had taken an incredible toll on the academy.

As the school came into view, I saw people running up to meet me.

Okay, how should I explain this?

After being questioned about what’d happened for an hour, I was released. I’d made Epona out to be the one who’d done everything.

No sooner had I left the visitation room than Dia and Tarte rushed over. They’d clearly been waiting. It was a relief to see them both safe.

“Welcome back, my lord.”

“You really put on a show this time.”

It sounded like they both realized it was all my doing.

“It was the first time I’ve been able to let loose like that in a while, so it felt good,” I said.

“Is it really okay? You showed your true power in front of the hero,” Tarte replied.

“Of course it’s not okay,” I answered.

“I knew it…”

If Epona had any measure of analytical skill, then she knew just about every major attack in my arsenal. The fight with General Orc had forced me to use them all. It was a huge loss.

“But I’m sure you don’t regret it,” Dia reasoned.

“Yeah, I wanted to protect this academy and the both of you. That is my number one priority. And besides, if you help me, Dia, I’m sure we can produce even more amazing magic,” I stated.

I patted the girls on the heads, and they both leaned on me.

“What will happen to the academy?” Dia asked.

“It’ll probably be closed temporarily,” I explained.

The outer wall had crumbled, making the place unsuitable as a stronghold. There were many wounded; some had even died. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the school shut down for good.

“That sucks. I really loved living here,” Dia said with remorse.

“…Me too,” I admitted.

There was nothing to be done about that now, though. Whatever happened next was up to the adults.

“For the time being, we should stop standing around. Let’s go back. I’m hungry. With luck, they’re distributing food somewhere,” I said.

“Just in case they’re not, I have some food for us. I’ve made a habit of preserving our leftovers and hiding them,” Tarte revealed.

“Since when? I had no idea you were doing that sort of thing,” Dia replied.

“Hee-hee-hee, it’s because I grew up in a poor village. I know the pain of starvation well.”

Tarte was probably the only noble servant who’d thought to do that. It brought a smile to my face.

We arrived at the dorm, which had luckily survived the battle. After I ate, I chose to take it easy for the rest of the day.

The following morning, all the students were gathered together for an assembly, where an academy shutdown was announced. Repairs would reportedly take two months, and we were to wait at our respective homes until they were complete. Summer vacation was two months long, so this absence was counted as that break instead.

I was glad they didn’t have to close the academy.

To my surprise, noble families weren’t upset about the danger their children had been in. Instead, the academy received adulation for wiping out a demon and its army so quickly after their appearance. Fighting monsters was the duty of mages, so that did make sense.

“We have a two-month break? That’s quite a lot of free time,” said Tarte.

“There are several things I’ve wanted to do recently. This is good timing,” I responded.

Most urgently, I wanted to test a demon-slaying method I’d devised. I was also going to need an arsenal of killing moves. I hoped to accomplish both before returning to the academy.

Epona walked up to us with a timid look on her face. It was clear she wanted to apologize for something, but she did seem a bit more chipper.

“Sorry for waiting so long to express my gratitude… Thank you for stopping me.”

“I did make a promise.”

“Please stop me again the next time I get like that.”

“I will. Even if it means killing you.”

The promise I’d made to Epona and the reason I’d been sent to this world were one and the same. If there were no other way to stop the hero but killing her, I’d do it without a second thought. Until such a time, I would try my best to stop her from destroying everything without ending her life.

“All right, I’m gonna go,” Epona declared.

“Are you returning to your hometown?” I asked.

“No, I’m going to be staying at a Royal Order base.”

That was likely so she could be dispatched in the event of another demon attack.

“I suppose that means we’re not going to see each other for a while,” I observed.

“I’ll miss you, Lugh. Good-bye.”

“Yeah, until next time.”

I watched Epona turn and leave.

“Tarte, Dia. Let’s go home.”

Knights arrived to transport students to the nearest town.

“Yes, my lord. After we get back, I’ll make a feast using Tuatha Dé ingredients.”

“I want to look back over the research documents I couldn’t take to the academy.”

I was going to work on getting stronger. I also needed to complete a method for killing demons.

It was more than just a desire to save Epona. The demons had to be stopped, or I’d lose everything dear to me. If that was inevitable, I at least wanted the comfort of knowing I’d done all I could. My pride refused to allow me to leave everything to the hero.

After our horse-drawn carriage arrived, we climbed in and began the journey home.

I opened my window and looked back at the academy.

“I will be back.”

The school was growing very small in the distance. I’d only been there for a short while, but I’d had a lot of fun.

I’ll return even more powerful.

Contents

Cover

Insert

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue | The Assassin Returns Home

Chapter 1 | The Assassin Goes Hunting

Chapter 2 | The Assassin Scolds His Student

Chapter 3 | The Assassin Receives a New Mission

Chapter 4 | The Assassin Devises a Method of Killing Demons

Chapter 5 | The Assassin Goes on a Family Trip

Chapter 6 | The Assassin Gains New Power

Chapter 7 | The Assassin Rejects a Proposal

Chapter 8 | The Assassin Is Named a Holy Knight

Chapter 9 | The Assassin Goes on a Date

Chapter 10 | The Assassin Performs a Promotion

Chapter 11 | The Assassin Obtains a Long-Awaited Item

Chapter 12 | The Assassin Is Targeted

Chapter 13 | The Assassin Develops Something

Chapter 14 | The Assassin Is Enchanted

Chapter 15 | The Assassin Gives Something a Try

Chapter 16 | The Assassin Is Defeated

Chapter 17 | The Assassin Experiments

Chapter 18 | The Assassin Smokes Out the Enemy

Chapter 19 | The Assassin Spectates

Chapter 20 | The Assassin Takes Aim

Chapter 21 | The Assassin Gives Praise

Epilogue | The Assassin Gives a Kiss

Afterword

Yen Newsletter

Prologue | The Assassin Returns Home

Recent events left the academy temporarily closed, and Dia, Tarte, and I were returning to Tuatha Dé.

The demon orc attack a few days ago had destroyed the academy’s bulwark, rendering the structure useless as a stronghold and necessitating immediate repair. Many parents were in an uproar, as no one wanted to leave their child at the school when it was in such a state.

Nobles had a duty to fight monsters, and while there was a risk that another force could strike while the academy was out of commission, it didn’t make sense to force kids to live in a death trap. Thus, it was decided that students would be sent home until the bulwark was repaired. Functionally, this meant our two-month summer break was starting early.

“There really is no place like Tuatha Dé,” Tarte remarked.

“For sure. The artistic and well-organized streets of the royal capital have their appeal, but I prefer Tuatha Dé and its coexistence with nature,” I responded.

As had been the case for a while now, the land was covered in soybean fields. The crop was vital in the production of moisturizer, a popular product. For that reason, soybean cultivation was rapidly growing.

Maha’s regular reports suggested that Natural You’s sales were doing as well as ever. Monsters had started to appear, but profits hadn’t gone down because no city had suffered serious damage yet.

However, there was no telling what could happen in the future. One stronghold had already fallen. If the increase in monsters caused a disturbance in the transportation networks between cities, the economy would tank, and demand for luxury items would go down.

According to market research, prices for medicine and weapons were already climbing. Natural You would need to adapt. I wished to meet with Maha in person at least once to discuss this. We needed to form a plan of action soon.

“You look lost in thought again. You’re always so busy, Lugh,” remarked Dia.

“You’re right about that. But that hard work has paid off in spades,” I said.

Thanks to my status as a noble, my strength as a Tuatha Dé assassin, and my access to funds and information from the Balor Company, I could have Dia and Tarte at my side and live a life with no restrictions. When I considered that the reward for my work, it didn’t seem so bad.

“You toil so much for the sake of others. Personally, I’m most at ease when I’m giving my all to ensure that I myself am happy,” Dia stated.

“Lord Lugh seems like he would be able to handle as many wives as he wants…,” added Tarte.

“He can’t help but come to the aid of every girl in need he finds. Now that I think about it, he really could amass a sizable number of spouses.”

“He really could.”

“Just who do you two think I am?”

I couldn’t deny that I went all out to save Tarte, Maha, and Dia. But I wasn’t planning on helping anyone else and luring them into becoming my companion as I had done with those three.

There were things even I couldn’t do alone, and that necessitated a team. More people did not necessarily make that team function better. With more members, there came more noise, and reaching mutual understandings would grow more difficult.

Dia and Tarte were my assistants, and Maha provided support. That’s all I needed.

“Okay, I trust you… I’m okay with Tarte and that other girl you introduced to me recently, but if you reach out to any more girls, I’ll be upset,” Dia confessed.

“Ah, um, Maha and I don’t really have that kind of relationship with Lugh…,” protested Tarte.

“But you want to be that way with him, right?” Dia questioned.

Tarte’s eyes darted to my face and away again.

“W-well, yeah, but…”

“Then you should go for it. Like I just said, I won’t get mad if it’s you.”

Why is Dia actively encouraging me to cheat on her? I have no intention of being with anyone other than her.

Perhaps life as a noble had conditioned her to think that way. Continuing the lineage was more important than anything for one of high standing. Military strength was also directly related to the number of mages in the country. For that reason, it was an aristocrat’s duty to take multiple wives.

Siring offspring was so crucial that high-ranking nobles with difficulty producing children occasionally paid lower-ranking members of the gentry for reproductive assistance. Tarte didn’t have a good understanding of that, so she was blushing and averting her gaze from me.

I’ll take Tarte as my second wife.

Should I wind up in a situation where I required a second wife, Tarte could actually work nicely. Being wed to her would allow me to skirt around a few obnoxious hang-ups that came with marrying a noblewoman. Plus, I did take personality and compatibility into account. Regardless, it was too early to be thinking about matrimony.

“That kind of talk would be better saved for after we graduate, wouldn’t it?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“Wha—? Me, marry Lugh…? I, ummm…”

We continued chatting to pass the time and eventually arrived at the estate. I took Tarte’s hand, prompting her to blush more intensely than she already was, and led her out of the carriage.

I opened the door to the estate and was immediately tackled by a silver-haired woman.

“Welcome home, my little Lugh! I was so worried when I heard about the demon. Thank goodness you’re safe.”

“Hey, Mom. There was a demon, but I didn’t do anything dangerous. The hero took care of it for us in no time.”

“Stop lying! I know what you did. They said you crossed deep into enemy territory alone and alerted the academy to the demon’s location.”

That was one thing I hadn’t concealed in my report to the academy. Evidently, my family had found out.

Epona was first among those credited for repelling the demon attack, but I was second. If we hadn’t been able to find the demon, those defending the academy would have fallen from exhaustion. I received great praise for infiltrating the horde of monsters alone, finding the demon, sending up the signal flare to alert the hero to its location, and monitoring the demon until she arrived. Even at that prestigious academy, the number of people capable of such a feat was severely limited.

“We got a letter saying you are going to receive a medal at the royal capital,” my mother informed me.

“That’s going overboard.”

I’d heard from the headmaster that my efforts were greatly appreciated, but there’d been no word of anything like this.

“Oh, come on. You and Cian are the only two in the world who would make that face at receiving an award. You’re becoming more and more like him every day.”

The Tuatha Dé family lived in the shadows and preferred to stay out of the spotlight. I wouldn’t have gone to such great lengths to defeat the demon had it not been necessary. More than anything, drawing attention went against my nature. My dad was of a similar mind.

As if ecstatic over realizing that I was growing similar to my dad, my mom hugged me tighter and pressed my head into her chest. Her breasts were small, so this wasn’t incredibly comfortable.

She and Dia really did look alike. Their shared features must have run in the Viekone family.

My mom looked unbelievably young for her age. Dia, my fiancée, was similarly youthful and slim. I was confident she’d always stay that way, no matter how much time passed. However, that also meant her chest would remain underdeveloped.

“Hey, what’s with the weird look?” Dia suddenly inquired.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I answered.

Dia could be really perceptive at times.

The door then opened again.

“So you’ve returned, Lugh.”

Dad strode into the room. It looked like he was in work mode.

“Yeah, we just got back,” I said.

My mom released me, mumbling something and glancing at me reproachfully.

Most of the time, she wouldn’t let me go simply because my dad walked into the room, but she never interfered when he was acting as the head of the Tuatha Dé clan of assassins. While a very lovely and free-spirited woman, she was still a member of this family.

“First, allow me to praise you for a job well done. You did very well at getting close to the hero and gaining his trust. It seems like you did brilliantly in your first battle with a demon as well,” my dad remarked.

“Apologies for my recklessness,” I responded, bowing my head in remorse for standing out more than was necessary.

“No, it’s fine. The circumstances have changed. This actually works to our benefit.”

Under what circumstances would it be okay for our secretive clan of assassins to stand out?

“That battle was the first skirmish between humans and demons—the opening act of a long fight. For that reason, the Alvanian Kingdom wants to play up victory to raise morale. Everyone expected the hero to give the performance he did, so his triumph lacked impact. That’s why they plan to celebrate your accomplishments. The conferment of a medal has a lot of weight behind it. Make sure you behave in a fitting manner.”

“Understood.”

A stronghold of young nobles from all over the country falling after the appearance of a single demon could be seen as a demoralizing defeat. The royal family wanted to ensure the populace didn’t think that, and the only way to do that was to commemorate what Epona and I had accomplished.

This came as a surprise to me. At least, partially.

“Once you reach the royal capital and receive your honors, many nobles will wish to curry your favor. Make sure not to let them take advantage of you,” my dad advised.

“I’ll be careful.”

“Those are the only matters I had to discuss.”

My dad took in a large breath. His demeanor then transitioned from the head of the Tuatha Dé clan of assassins to that of a doting parent.

“…It’s nice to have you back. Esri has prepared a feast. I want to hear all about your time at the academy.”

“Hmm-hmm-hmm. I made all of your favorites, Lugh. I even prepared some special roast duck and baked my first berry pie in a while.”

“That sounds exciting. Dia, Tarte, let’s save today’s training for after we eat,” I said.

“Yes, my lord,” Tarte replied.

“Oh, come on, Lugh. Let’s just take today off. If we’re going to train after we eat, then I can’t drink any alcohol,” Dia objected.

The pair were clearly excited about the meal. Many strange things were afoot in the world outside, but for now, I was going to enjoy the warmth of home. Having fun and clearing the exhaustion from your mind were important. I’d learned that in this world.

Chapter 1 | The Assassin Goes Hunting

Being home again was a great time. I was blessed with a marvelous family.

Dinner was relaxing. My mom wasn’t a gourmet chef, but her cooking suited my tastes. I probably liked it because that’s what I grew up on, but my affection for her played a part as well.

The next day, I went hunting in the mountains. I’d decided I would do the cooking today, though not necessarily as thanks for being treated yesterday. Dia wanted to eat my cream stew with rabbit, so I had to go out and gather ingredients.

Turning to Tarte, I inquired, “Are your mana and stamina still okay?”

“Yes, I am managing!” she answered.

My preferred hunting ground was located beyond a deep forest trail and was home to many fierce beasts, which made it quite dangerous. Those areas touched by man had been made easier to traverse, but even walking through the wilderness proved trying on one’s endurance. If you weren’t careful, your legs could end up scratched, too.

I sought game here to avoid poaching it from commoners. Many made their living from selling meat and skins, and I didn’t want to get in their way.

There were many other merits as well. Not even professional trappers ventured this deep into the wilds, so the area was abundant with fauna. Unworked land like this also made for a good training ground. Hunting here had honed my skills.

“I found Alvanian rabbit tracks… That means it probably hasn’t gone far, my lord,” Tarte observed.

Traveling through the dense woods tested my agility and stamina, and straining to make sure I didn’t miss even the smallest animal traces trained my attentiveness and concentration. It almost felt nostalgic.

Tarte was following behind me. Using only the tiniest trace of footprints left behind, she guessed our quarry’s location and took off in pursuit.

I’d given her two assignments during this hunting trip to help her overcome her weaknesses.

The first was to use her Tuatha Dé eyes the entire time she was on the mountain. The Tuatha Dé eyes constantly consumed mana. Without the Rapid Recovery skill, they could quickly cause you to faint. For that reason, a user had to practice maintaining a low mana output. This improved their control over the eyes.

Tarte’s other task was to use a new weapon I’d prepared for her. The spear was Tarte’s preferred tool in combat. Obviously, she should continue to practice with it and strive to be the best she could. However, I’d given her another armament to use, as well as a shortcut for raising her battle prowess. While it strayed from the honorable combat of knights or martial artists, I didn’t care. We were assassins. The pursuit of power was all that mattered.

Tarte took off running while chanting the incantation Dia had made at her request. It was a spell fit for assassination.

“Wind Shadow!”

Tarte was very proficient with a spell that created an aerodynamic wind barrier that removed air resistance, repressed stamina consumption, and enabled her to move at high speeds. This new magic she was utilizing had been based on that. Conjured air gathered around the young woman, boosting her swiftness, disguising her scent, and muffling her sound. As a veritable ghost, she approached the rabbit without fear of detection.

Admittedly, the spell didn’t erase all traces of Tarte. That required extremely delicate control, which in turn meant a more difficult incantation. However, those imperfections could be compensated for with assassination techniques, so we didn’t worry about it. Achieving all that was easier said than done, though.

“She’s doing well,” I commented.

Alvanian rabbits possessed acute hearing and smell. Should Tarte approach without being noticed, I’d give her a passing grade.

I was watching this play out from a distance. Tarte lifted her skirt. While she always kept a folding spear on her left thigh, she now sported a handgun with an attachable barrel on her right. That was the new weapon I had gifted her.

“A Gun Strike that Tarte can use. I hope it works,” I muttered.

The Gun Strike that Dia and I performed had a few significant shortcomings. It required an explosion of fire magic, which only a select few mages had. While anyone could use Gun Strike if Fahr Stone blasts were employed as a propellant, it required a larger firearm that could withstand the force.

That was why I developed the Fahr Stone powder. By adjusting its quantity, I could regulate the explosion, tapering it as necessary. The bullets in Tarte’s gun were filled with the maximum amount of powder a handgun could endure.

Tarte drew the pistol off her right thigh and fitted the attachable barrel to it. A handgun’s small size made it easy to use at point-blank range, and affixing the longer barrel raised accuracy for distance shooting.

In less than a moment, Tarte filled the Fahr Stone powder with mana to its critical point. An explosion sounded, and a bullet lanced forth from the handgun, piercing the Alvanian rabbit’s head.

Tarte fired the gun with one hand, a feat she was only capable of because she had magically boosted her physical strength. These firearms had twice the kick that a Magnum did. It was enough to knock back even the burliest of men. I’d given the weapon such ridiculous strength because it was intended to kill mages.

“Lord Lugh, I did it! I left plenty for us to eat,” Tarte said cheerily.

This was actually the second rabbit she’d shot today. She had struck the first in the middle of its body, ruining the meat. To ensure this didn’t happen, you needed to approach it as close as possible, remain calm, and fire a clean shot into the head.

Those were the skills I wanted Tarte to build, and she had succeeded.

“Great job. You’ve passed. How does the gun feel?”

“I love it. Being able to fire six bullets in a row is amazing.”

Tarte cocked the hammer, and the cylinder rotated and loaded the next round.

I’d given her a revolver that held six shots. A semiautomatic pistol would have been better performance-wise. However, it came with a risk of accidental discharge, which I thought was unacceptable. A revolver was better suited to the mechanism that blocked mana from flowing into anything other than the loaded bullet.

“I see. Please let me know if you have any concerns. It’s still a prototype, so it needs improvement,” I stated.

“Okay! I’ll give a detailed report of anything that comes to mind. Test model or not, having powerful magic that doesn’t require an incantation is incredible. Any mage could use this.”

Just as Tarte said, I’d developed the weapon to be accessible to all. If I ever found highly efficient gunpowder in this world, that would remove the dependency on Fahr Stones, and I would be able to manufacture a firearm that anyone could use, mage or not.

“The era of having to entrust everything to one hero will end someday. This gun could be the first step toward that,” I commented offhandedly.

Firearms had brought an end to the knights of medieval Europe. Such fighters were granted privileged lives because they trained from a young age, learned how to use a sword, and ruled over and protected peasants with their superior strength.

Everything changed the moment guns were invented, however. Now, anyone could kill with ease. Years of practice with swords and lances meant nothing in the face of a lead bullet. With only a few days of training, commoners could slay experienced soldiers. Once knights were no longer needed, peasants began to feel exploited, and knights never held the same position in society again.

“Lord Lugh, are you planning on distributing guns throughout the world to bring an end to the current society?” Tarte questioned.

“No, I’m not preparing for anything like that at the moment.”

In this world—or rather, in this country—the society of nobles was just barely keeping the peace. I didn’t want to do anything to light the embers of war.

“Let’s head back.”

“Yes, my lord! I’m looking forward to your cream stew. I have never managed to get mine to taste like yours, even though you taught me the recipe. It always feels like something is missing.”

I’d first made cream stew here when I was very young, and it became a local specialty of the Tuatha Dé domain. It was served to travelers at inns, and those sightseers spread it throughout the world. Some came to like it so much that they wanted to go to Tuatha Dé just to experience the dish where it originated.

“I really don’t do anything special when I make it, though,” I admitted.

“Please let me watch you as you cook. That way, I can discover your secret!” Tarte was getting fired up. She did like cooking more than killing.

We entertained idle conversation as we skinned the rabbit, drained it of blood, and wrapped it in tree bark. Once we were back home, I headed for the kitchen right away. Tarte had worked hard hunting today, so I made sure to give her the leg meat, which was the tastiest part.

For dinner, we enjoyed the cream stew with rabbit, some fresh bread, and one more item that I hastily threw together.

I prepared the broth using rabbit bones, dried mushrooms that grew in the mountains, and white sauce. I filled the soup with a typical assortment of seasonal vegetables and rabbit meat.

“My little Lugh’s cream stew is truly a masterpiece. There’s nothing like a son’s home cooking.”

“Mom, I often hear ‘mother’s home cooking,’ but I’ve never heard anyone say ‘son’s home cooking.’”

“But that’s the only way I can describe the flavor. You sure know how to please a woman, Lugh,” my mom said with a sigh of pleasure.

“Watch your phrasing,” I shot back.

She brought a spoonful of stew to her mouth and smiled from ear to ear.

“Awww, I at least want to surpass Lord Lugh at cooking… I’m a failure as his personal retainer.” Looking conflicted, Tarte bit into the leg meat. Its tenderness and flavor made it the tastiest part of the rabbit. Partaking of it was the privilege of the person who’d killed the animal.

Unless we were at the academy, Tarte usually stationed herself behind me as my maid at meals. Today, though, my mom gave her strict orders to eat with us. I wasn’t exactly sure what happened, but yesterday, my mom had summoned Tarte for a lengthy discussion. Her eating with us probably had something to do with that. My dad was absent due to something related to my medal ceremony, which presented my mom with the perfect opportunity to get into some mischief.

“This is nostalgic. You made cream stew for me back when I was your mentor, remember? I couldn’t believe you created such a delicious meal at such a young age. You’ve been remarkable ever since you were small, Lugh,” Dia said.

“I was just an early developer. I made the gratin you requested, by the way.”

“Yes! That’s my favorite.”

Typically, I prepared gratin the next day using leftovers. However, Dia really wanted some today, so I obliged. All I had to do was coat pasta with cream stew, tomato sauce, and cheese, then bake it—a relatively simple effort.

“Adding rich cheese and the sour taste of tomatoes to the already delicious cream stew makes it even better,” Dia remarked, ecstatically savoring one of her most beloved foods.

Tarte was similarly enjoying the meal, so I offered her some gratin as well. Then I noticed Mom’s reproachful glare and gave some to her, too.

That left me without any, but I didn’t mind. I made gratin to add a bit of a different flavor to the leftover cream stew the next day. Yet, even so, the taste was still similar. Simultaneously eating both was a little too much for me. I couldn’t believe what short work the ladies of the family were making of it.

“That was incredible,” my mom said.

“I will take care of cleaning, my lord,” offered Tarte.

“I’m going back to my room. Come by later, Lugh. I’ve finished analyzing the spell you asked me to look at,” Dia invited.

The three of them went their separate ways. I decided to head to my chamber to do some work. Although I was curious about what Dia mentioned, I also wanted to improve my prototype gun.

Tarte had been continuously stealing glances at me from the corner of her eye. It was typical behavior whenever she was hiding something from me. She’d done the same thing before giving me a surprise birthday present.

For the time being, I was content to pretend I hadn’t noticed. I was worried about whatever nonsense my mom had filled her head with, but I was sure Tarte wouldn’t do anything to cause me stress.

Chapter 2 | The Assassin Scolds His Student

I took a moment to stretch. I’d been doing precision work in my room since dinner, so my shoulders were tight.

After seeing Tarte use the gun today, I’d decided on a few minor tweaks. I was satisfied with the force and precision but thought the reloading system could stand to improve.

The two big disadvantages of the mana-blocking mechanism and the size of the gun were the limit of six bullets and the need to restock them all individually after exhausting them. The mana-blocking mechanism, which prevented accidental explosions, also slowed reloading time, and it demanded more effort than a regular revolver.

As the gun was, reloading it in the middle of combat was not realistic. Unfortunately, if I made it easier to load rounds, the mana-blocking mechanism would become less reliable.

“…Maybe I should come at this from a different angle.”

I considered the idea of swapping out preloaded cylinders. That sort of thing was common for automatic handguns, but it wasn’t impossible for a revolver.

“This should work.”

With this new remodel, reloading in the heat of battle was now a possibility. It didn’t look like strength would be a problem, either, but spare cylinders were bulky.

“All right, next, I’ll make guns for Dia and me.”

While Dia and I could both use Gun Strike, employing a gun prepared beforehand would be significantly swifter. Being able to release a lethal attack without the need for an incantation was a huge advantage. Seeing as the weapon was the size of an ordinary handgun, it would be easy to carry as well.

I’d need to reduce the force of Dia’s gun, though, as she couldn’t match Tarte’s physical strength, even after empowering herself with mana.

After calculating the force of the weapon, I drew up a blueprint. The reduced strength meant Dia’s firearm could be made smaller. She would have an easier time both carrying it and firing it.

Time flew by as I worked on the design.

“That should do it.”

It was getting late, so I decided to end things now that I had completed the design. The building phase would come tomorrow. I crashed onto my bed, and just when my consciousness began to drift away, I heard a knock at the door.

“Lord Lugh, do you have a moment?”

It was Tarte. What could she want at this hour?

“Come in.”

I quickly put away all the dangerous stuff I had lying around and then beckoned her in.

“Sorry for coming by so late.”

She seemed nervous for some reason, and her voice was trembling. The sight of what she was wearing nearly made me cry out in shock.

“Tarte, what in the world are you doing wearing that?”

“U-um, you know…”

Tarte was dressed only in a white negligee. It clung tightly to her body, and her well-developed arms and legs were bare. The dress was slightly transparent, enough so I could see she wasn’t wearing underwear. Her body was also a little flushed, as if she’d come from a hot bath. She looked unbelievably attractive.

A pleasant scent wafted on the air. I recognized the smell from a new Natural You perfume that I developed. We’d added it to meet a demand from customers who wanted something that would entice men.

The product was only distributed in regular shipments to our members. That could only mean that my mom was behind this. She was in regular contact with Maha and had secretly become a member of Natural You.

I’d also laid eyes on the negligee that Tarte was wearing before. My mom showed it off a long time ago while saying something like she would bewitch Dad and give me a little sister. She’d since retailored it for Tarte.

“I can guess most of it already, but I’ll ask anyway. Just what did my mom fill your head with?”

“Um, I—I am your assistant, my lord, and an assassin. She said that because girls aren’t as strong as boys, they need to compensate by using their bodies as weapons of seduction, so she told me to get some training from you. She also made it clear that as your personal retainer, it’s my duty to service you… As an assassin and a maid, I need to, um, do it with you.” Red as a beet, Tarte falteringly recounted everything she’d heard from my mom.

In her own way, my mom was likely trying to help, but this was the last thing I needed her doing for me. She was probably only doing it in pursuit of some selfish desire, like wanting to see the faces of her grandchildren as soon as possible. Tarte had just been unfortunate enough to get swept up in it all.

“Tarte.”

I called her name, then grabbed her arms forcefully, threw her onto my bed, pinned her down, and hung over her.

“Eek, Lord Lugh!” she shrieked. Though quivering, her eyes still seemed somewhat impassioned as she looked up at me. Even Tarte’s breath seemed sweet. I felt my pulse quicken.

Beholding her in that moment, I wanted desperately to give in to desire. I hadn’t considered Tarte as a romantic interest, but this forced me to realize how attractive she was.

Evidently, I still had a lot of maturing to do. My body might have been overflowing with sexual desire, but losing my presence of mind so easily was unbecoming.

Lust wasn’t the only thing I was feeling. I was also rather angry at Tarte. I’d have to give her a strict scolding.

“You have no idea what you’re saying.”

Tarte was ridiculously beautiful. Sexy, too. Even nobles who saw a plethora of enticing women in their lives would want her. She’d drawn the eyes of many at the academy. Some idiots had even approached me about buying her.

“M-my lord, your face is scaring me.”

My unusual behavior was causing Tarte to panic. I squeezed her breasts.

“That hurts…”

They were big and soft, and they still had plenty of growing left to do.

“If you’re serious about this, I can teach you how to use your body as a tool for assassination. However, you’ll have to lie with many people. Do you understand what that means?”

Tarte went silent. My mom had put her up to this, so she hadn’t realized what she was committing to. She was only thinking about having sex with me and hadn’t thought about what would happen once she finished her training and had to take on a real job.

“Try to imagine it, okay? Using your feminine charms as a weapon means having your body violated by men you don’t even like and then looking for an opportunity to kill them.”

I put my legs between her thighs to prevent her from closing her crotch. Then I squeezed her breasts even harder.

Tears started to form in Tarte’s eyes, and she cowered despite knowing that it was only me.

“You’re scared, right? Even with someone you know, you’re frightened. I haven’t done anything yet, and you’re already trembling. Do you really think you can assassinate like this? All right, let’s practice. Try it. I’m going to do terrible things to you. Look for an opportunity and shove your gun against my stomach.”

I’d instructed Tarte to carry a gun with her everywhere she went. She had one strapped to her even now.

Were this an actual situation, her carrying a firearm in such a way wouldn’t be an issue. The holster bound to her thigh wasn’t large, and this world wasn’t well acquainted with pistols. Her target would believe it to be an accessory of some sort.

I tried to force off Tarte’s negligee as tears streamed down her face, and then she pulled the handgun from her holster and aimed for my stomach. She was too slow, however, and I grabbed her hands and twisted.

“That’s a failure. This isn’t the right moment to strike against a man. If you’re going to make a move, it’s got to be later, when he’s less wary. Wait until he is drunk on lust for you and loses sight of all other things around him.”

“I-I’m sorry—”

I let Tarte go and stood up.

“You’re not ready for seduction.”

I grabbed some tea leaves and cups I had stocked in my room, used a spell to produce some hot water, then brewed Tarte a bit of relaxing tea and handed it to her. She drank it slowly, and she steadily calmed down.

“I had no idea that was going to be so scary. But, um…”

“Are you saying you just weren’t ready? Do you want to try again after you prepare yourself?”

“If it will be of help to you,” Tarte insisted, locking her still-moist eyes with mine.

Her persistence wasn’t because my punishment hadn’t been strong enough. This girl was truly determined to do anything for me.

“You’re stubborn in the weirdest places. I believe you, but I still won’t allow it,” I said.

“Because I’m ill-suited for it?”

“No. You are beautiful and have a personality that men love—you’re extremely well suited for that sort of job. Your timid nature might work against you, but that could be treated with experience.”

Tarte was a hard worker. If she set her mind to a task, she could do it.

“Then why?” she pressed.

“Because the idea of you with another man upsets me,” I admitted, speaking from the heart. Tarte was my assistant, but I also thought of her as an important family member.

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I said.”

“U-um, I’m happy. I’m happy that I’m dear to you, my lord.”

“You always have been. I’m sorry I haven’t made that clear.”

“That’s not what I meant! I know you value me very, very much. That is why I love you, my lord!”

Both of us had been through a lot tonight, and we were confessing things we usually would have kept bottled up.

“After you finish that drink, return to your room and rest. Sorry for scaring you like that,” I said.

“It’s all right. I understand that it was for my sake. I’m not scared at all anymore.”

Tarte was relaxedly sipping her tea. There was no more need for me to fret.

“Um, I won’t bring up using seduction for assassination anymore… But, you know, what about my service as a maid?” Tarte asked, looking at me with upturned eyes.

“Let’s save that for another day. I don’t feel like sleeping with a girl who started shaking just because a man threw her down on the bed.”

“Hmph, you’re such a bully sometimes, my lord,” Tarte pouted.

She then left my room looking happy but also somehow disappointed. When she was gone, I let out a big sigh.

“That was a close call.”

Everything I did to Tarte was an act to deter her, but resisting had been difficult. Losing myself and simply making love to her had been very tempting.

“…I’ll make Mom pay for convincing Tarte to do something like that.”

That was in horrible taste. I overlooked most of her pranks, but this was too much. She needed to be punished.

Chapter 3 | The Assassin Receives a New Mission

The morning after the incident with Tarte, I went to my mom’s room.

“Wow! How many years has it been since you’ve visited my chamber of your own volition, Lugh?! I’ll prepare us some tea and sweets. I have some cookies stashed away for a special occasion.”

My mom cheerfully stood on a stool to grab some cookies hidden above a dresser. The packaging design was one you’d often see in the royal capital. Doubtless, the sweets were a souvenir someone had sent her that she’d set aside.

“Mom, you know why I’m here, right?”

“Hmm-hmm-hmm, of course I do. You came to thank me for giving Tarte a little push in the back. Did you two go all the way?”

“No, we didn’t. I sent her away.”

“What, you refused a girl as beautiful as her?! Ah, it’s because you don’t know how, right? Don’t worry. Your mother will teach you.”

“That won’t be necessary. Receiving that kind of lesson from a parent leads to serious trauma, you know.”

Why was she assuming I was a virgin? I had gained plenty of experience while living in Milteu as Illig Balor of the Balor Company. I couldn’t date freely while in the position of Illig Balor, however, and I also would have felt guilty because of Dia, so I’d only had sex at brothels. Let’s not forget the encounters from my previous life.

The reason I was upset over this was that when I was young back on Earth, I’d used my body to entice people with that sort of predilection. I’d had many acquaintances who’d done the same. I knew how painful and tragic that kind of thing could be.

“If that’s not the reason, then I really don’t understand. You both like each other deep down, and yet you refuse to get intimate. It’s so irritating, I can’t take it. That is why I gave Tarte the little push she needed.”

“What the hell were you doing telling Tarte to employ seduction? I won’t let her do that kind of thing. Surely you must know what it means for an assassin to get involved in that, Mom? How could you send her down that path? I am furious about this.”

If it were for me, Tarte would do it. No matter how painful it was for her, she wouldn’t hesitate. That’s what scared me so much.

“Oh dear, you’re scaring me, Lugh. I didn’t mean anything by it. It was only an excuse so that she would tempt you.”

I had thought that might be the case, but my mom underestimated Tarte’s willingness to rush headlong into everything without regard to her well-being.

“The next time you do this kind of thing, I won’t forgive you. I’ll never speak to you again,” I warned.

“N-no, you can’t do that. I’ll reflect on what I did, so please forgive me. I wouldn’t be able to live anymore if you hated me, Lugh.”

Clinging to me tight, my mom started to cry. As always, she looked and acted too young for her age.

As I considered that, I realized I had a slight build and often got mistaken for someone younger, too. That would probably continue to plague me even into my twenties. It worried me how people remarked on my resemblance to my mom. It was fine for girls, but no guy wished to look young forever.

“I’m excusing you this time, but no more. I know how Tarte and the others feel about me. We’re just fine without you sticking your nose in our business.”

Dia, Tarte, and Maha were all valuable companions. We had our own way of doing things, and I didn’t want any outside interference.

“Lugh, that’s where you’re still a child. You have to know there’s no way a girl will show her true feelings to the person she likes,” my mom stated with a self-satisfied smile.

Although it was irritating, I knew I couldn’t deny that.

“Tarte would have been happy if you had laid your hands on her.”

“Have you not learned your lesson, Mom?”

“Yes, I have!” she hurriedly replied with a forced bow.

…She would’ve been happy, huh? If I had simply let events unfold and gently slept with her rather than scaring her, it likely would have pleased her.

Still, it was wrong. Relationships built on excuses were unhealthy. Also, if we were to ever truly become involved, that kind of first experience could be damaging down the line.

“I’m leaving.”

“Oh, come on, let’s have some sweets.”

“I’m busy. I won’t be able to focus on my own work once Dad gets home.”

“He should be back in two days, right? I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of souvenir he brings for us.”

“Would that I shared your excitement. I’m being used as a figurehead to raise the morale of the country. There’s no way this won’t be trouble.”

Dad had left for a preliminary meeting related to my award ceremony. As the capital was far away, the conference was held in a town that served as the halfway point. There were many political machinations at play, and he was summoned as the head of House Tuatha Dé. It felt strange that I wasn’t there. I was the one who would be given the medal, after all.

“There’s no need to worry. Cian won’t let them hurt you, and if he thinks there’s danger, I’m sure he’ll have an escape plan ready,” my mom said.

Most wouldn’t expect such preparation from a noble, but it did sound like my dad.

The Tuatha Dé clan worked for the Alvanian Kingdom, but the family was more important to my dad than any country. Should he ever be faced with a choice between the two, it’d be the latter every time. Even without an aristocratic title, he had the strength necessary to protect us.

“Ah, one more thing. Please bring Maha home next time. We’ve exchanged many letters, and I can feel in her every word how much she loves you. I need to see what kind of girl she is!”

“…Bye, Mom.”

There was no point in saying anything more. Feeling very hopeless, I left the room.

To my surprise, my dad returned home a day earlier than expected. As soon as he saw me, he told me we’d meet in the study after an hour and then retired to his room.

He looked to be his usual self at a glance, but I could tell he was concealing profound fatigue. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him that spent. The meeting must have gotten quite heated.

I ordered Tarte to brew some of a special tea blend that I’d created. Natural You had added teas to its inventory lately. This one was a rare variety. Even if only a little, I wanted to cheer my dad up. The brew relieved stress and promoted healthy skin, making it quite popular.

“I need to prepare myself for the worst.”

I’d been on edge about this whole medal-awarding business, but my dad’s mood confirmed that something serious was going on.

“Excuse me,” I said as I entered the study. My dad had changed his clothes, and thankfully, his complexion seemed to have improved. Maybe he’d taken a short nap.

“Please sit.”

I did as requested.

“Let’s get straight to the point. I want to talk to you about your upcoming ceremony in the royal capital. I think you already know this, but the reason I left the domain was to attend a preliminary gathering related to that.” His face was solemn as he spoke. That didn’t bode well.

Suddenly, a knock came at the door.

“Who is it?” asked my dad.

“It’s Tarte. I brought tea on Lord Lugh’s orders.”

“Enter.”

Tarte bowed and then poured two cups. She’d become quite graceful at this. Once finished, she bowed again and left the room.

“This smells nice. I’m not familiar with this tea,” my father remarked.

“It’s tea from a distant foreign country. It’s supposed to be relaxing,” I replied.

“…To think I let my own son see how tired I really was. It won’t be long now until you are head of the house. This brew is good. Just what I needed.”

Dad drank with a slight smile, and his facial expression softened a little.

The tea was made using mana that leaked from the ground located above flowing dragon veins, making it impossible to find during my first life. I took a great liking to it and ended up buying some fields and tenant farmers from a landowner to secure a private supply. To ensure a good work ethic, I paid the workers much higher salaries than their previous employer.

“Now that we’ve had time to relax, let’s get back to our discussion. The medal ceremony in the royal capital will play out roughly as I expected, so there are no real problems there. You will have to be a part of some overly showy functions, though.”

“I’m prepared for that.”

My dad filled me in on the details, and nothing seemed particularly off. None of it pushed past what I was comfortable with.

“The real issue is what will follow… This attack has left the leaders of this country shaken. A single demon’s appearance led to your school being devastated, despite it possessing the highest concentration of mages anywhere in the nation. To make matters worse, it all happened in the royal capital’s backyard.”

The Royal Knights Academy was situated on the outskirts of the royal capital.

The capital had two layers of defense—its actual military establishments and the academy.

Many strongholds on the outside had been rendered all but meaningless during the demon incursion, and the school had been moments from falling. We were one mistake away from the royal capital, the pillar of the country, being destroyed.

“If they’re scared, then they’ll take a defensive strategy… No, they wouldn’t… Are they planning on keeping the hero in the capital?”

“Very astute. When the next demon appears, the hero will not be permitted to venture too far from the capital. Our rulers are ready to sit by and let people die. The excuse is that if they fall, then so, too, does the country. Truthfully, those higher up in the government are just looking out for themselves.”

They were going to keep the hero locked up in the royal capital even though demons couldn’t be killed without her. It was utterly insane.

“What does that have to do with House Tuatha Dé or me?” I asked.

“…The nobles of domains farther from the capital were vehemently against this tactic. None of them liked the idea of being left for dead. That is when your name came up. The central government convinced everyone to accept keeping the hero at the capital by promising to dispatch enough fighting strength to kill a demon, should another make itself known.”

“They’re going to send me? Why does the capital think I’m capable of that sort of thing?”

I did participate in the last battle, but as far as anyone knew, all I did was discover the demon’s location and then keep an eye on it until the hero arrived. None of that was enough for people to think I could battle a demon head-on.

“From what I understand, Epona let a few things slip. You were careless, Lugh,” chided my dad.

“…Shoot. I’m sorry.”

I’d asked her not to say anything. I knew full well that if my strength ever became known, it would be problematic.

“Don’t blame the hero. As I understand it, some folks were badmouthing you at a party, and he spoke out in your defense… You can probably imagine what followed, right?”

“Knowing Epona’s personality, yeah. I was too naive.”

She most likely revealed everything I did during that battle. Still, I couldn’t blame Epona for this. It was my mistake for not binding her with anything more than a verbal promise.

“I don’t know if this is something you’ll be happy about, but you will receive appropriate compensation for this role. In my efforts to protect you, I demanded ridiculous compensation, hoping it would get the higher-ups to back off, but those fools accepted everything I asked for. And that’s not all. It was decided you will be awarded a special position at your medal ceremony. The station will come with a variety of privileges. I apologize for not being able to protect you. Our family has long evaded rising beyond the level of baron because of the freedom that rank affords us, but this whole debacle was a good reminder of how little one is capable of without a superior standing.”

Those running the government were as sly as ever.

Dad was unrivaled in matters of assassination and medicine. When it comes to politics, however, a person’s standing speaks more than their skill. It was actually impressive he was able to obtain as much as he did.

“Please don’t apologize. My own naïveté caused this. It’s my price to pay,” I said.

“You continue to amaze me, Lugh. If you ever feel the need, you can flee the country. If it’s gotten to the point where I have to send my son to certain death, then I won’t hesitate to abandon our lives here. All preparations are ready.”

My dad was undoubtedly referring to the plan for if House Tuatha Dé was ever cast aside by the royal family. In his eyes, I could see the conviction to betray our nation to save me.

That’s the sort of man my dad was. When it came to assassination techniques, even I didn’t match him. He was reliable, but that’s precisely why I didn’t want to grow overly dependent.

“For now, I don’t think that’s necessary. I’ll prove I’m capable of even killing a demon,” I declared.

Technically, this was a meteoric rise in standing for me. The reality of the situation, however, was that I was being thrown into a battle against demons without the hero’s help. Functionally, it was suicide.

I was sure the government didn’t believe I could actually kill a demon. My involvement was just an excuse to keep the hero in the capital. Should I wind up dead, the bigwigs would simply tell the provincial nobility to honor their agreement and continue to hog the hero for themselves.

Regardless, I was already devising a way to slay demons. This new development only meant that I had to speed up my work.

“There is some other business,” my dad added. “I was entrusted with a message from Epona. He says he wants to meet with you before the medal ceremony. As a token of apology, the hero wants to use his skill My Loyal Knights to share some of his power with you.”

It came as a surprise that Epona had been present at the meeting. Likely, it was so she could provide testimony to my strength.

“That would help a lot. The idea of going up against a demon as I am now has me feeling rather powerless. Leave it to the hero to have a skill that can be shared with others.”

Truthfully, I already knew of that ability. It was an S-Rank skill I’d learned about while in the goddess’s room.

My Loyal Knights enabled the user to strengthen up to three people and give them copies of the original’s skills. However, if one of the targets went against the hero or fell in battle, they’d lose that gift.

That power was something I could make use of to kill the hero. There were plenty of loopholes to get around the condition of not being allowed to oppose Epona.

“Are you really okay with this? I think it would be perfectly acceptable if you run,” my dad said again.

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t agree to anything I can’t do. Assassins don’t misjudge themselves. That’s how you raised me. I promise I’ll be fine. Also, this isn’t so different from what we’ve been doing up until now. The role of the Tuatha Dé is to assassinate those who will bring harm to our country. All that’s changed is the opponent.”

This was shaping up to be a tremendous task, but it could’ve been worse. My dad explained the special privileges I would be granted, and they were very enticing. Ultimately, my regular practices wouldn’t be too heavily altered.

As a Tuatha Dé, I’d do anything for the country. Even assassinate a demon.

Chapter 4 | The Assassin Devises a Method of Killing Demons

In a whirlwind of unexpected developments, I had been saddled with a duty to slay demons and a higher standing in the aristocratic hierarchy.

If I was going to make it to the award ceremony, I had to leave Tuatha Dé in two days. That meant today and tomorrow were the only times I’d have to hunker down and focus on my research.

As I was drinking some tea in my room, there was a knock at the door.

“Lord Lugh, I’m here.”

“Why’d you call us so suddenly? Did something happen?”

“I’ve been waiting on you two.”

Dia and Tarte entered. I wanted to speak with them about what my dad had said. The two of them were my assistants. Should I go up against a demon, they’d be right there with me. They needed to be apprised of the situation.

“I have something I need to tell you two. The country has entrusted me with a heavy responsibility.”

I recounted everything, and both girls reacted with surprise.

“You never cease to amaze, Lord Lugh. This sounds like a massive promotion! What is that special rank?”

“There’s something wrong with the people of this country. I can’t believe they would force a job like killing demons onto a single noble.”

Both seemed surprised, though for different reasons. Tarte was overjoyed at the recognition of my strength, while Dia looked on things with a bit more cynicism. I thought the latter was the correct response.

“First of all, is it even possible to kill a demon? Every bit of research suggests that only the hero can do it,” Dia said.

“I don’t think it is. I fought the demon during the battle at the academy. I was able to slay it, but I couldn’t keep it dead. Its might eclipsed mine two- or threefold. I cut that thing down eleven times, and it rose back up in each instance without fail. Only the hero can kill a demon,” I replied.

That battle had been frightening. No matter what I did, that creature wouldn’t stay down. Changing the methods by which I slew it did reveal a few things, however. But I hadn’t been able to make much use of my findings in the thick of the fight.

“Then you can’t do it, my lord. It sounds like you have no chance. Demons seem really hard to eliminate,” Tarte commented.

“That’s true. For now,” I said.

“Then you do know of a way of defeating them after all?” questioned Dia.

“That’s right. Every time I killed the demon, I analyzed it with my Tuatha Dé eyes from the moment of death to the point it revived. I did the same when Epona slew it. By doing so, I was able to construct a hypothesis on why the task is something only the hero can do.”

“Lugh, that’s incredible. Every nation in the world has been tirelessly searching for a way to kill demons for years,” Dia commented.

Dealing with those creatures had been a problem plaguing the entire world for centuries. They only appeared about once every two hundred years, but they always brought death and destruction with them.

The hero’s home country would survive, but everyone else suffered a tragic fate. The hero was only sent to help other nations after they paid an outrageously steep price.

It was such a serious issue that some allied lands had agreements that stipulated shared use of the hero should they be born there.

“I owe my realization to the Tuatha Dé eyes. It was only because I could see mana that I figured it out. No other researcher in the world has had that chance.”

Without the vision I possessed, it was impossible to find the solution. Even the act of accompanying the hero onto the battlefield and observing a demon up close wouldn’t have been enough. If only one of those many researchers could see mana, they might have found the answers they so desperately sought.

“That’s still unbelievable! If your theory proves true, it could change the world,” said Dia.

Monopolizing the method of slaying demons didn’t seem worthwhile. I was sure the government wouldn’t want such information getting out, so that they could use the hero as a bargaining chip with other countries. However, as someone forcibly tasked with killing demons, the more people who could do it themselves, the better.

“That’s exactly why I need to focus on getting this done as quickly as I can. Once I do, I’ll teach you both,” I stated.

“Okay! With you teaching me, I’m sure I’ll be able to do it!” Tarte declared.

“I’ll help you develop it. I’m sure this method uses magic,” Dia added.

“That it does. I’m counting on you two.”

It would be a heavy load for me to bear alone. But with Dia and Tarte by my side, I felt like I could pull it off.

“I have a present for both of you as well. Tarte, I remodeled your gun. It now has replaceable chambers that should make loading easier. And Dia, I made you a custom model.”

“Truly?! The one you gave me before was already amazing!”

“It’s so cute and small. I’ll be able to keep this on me at all times.”

I passed the girls their revolvers. Dia’s was more compact than Tarte’s.

Even if Dia were to strengthen herself with mana, she would be unable to handle the recoil of Tarte’s gun. For that reason, I made her a less powerful model.

“It’s about the size of a hand, so I’ve dubbed it the handgun. The barrel is short, making it easy to wield and conceal. Unfortunately, the trade-off is that it’s less accurate. Tarte has the option of attaching a long barrel. But Dia, if you feel you have the time for long-distance aiming, use Gun Strike.”

“I’ll practice hard, my lord.”

“The rapid-fire mechanism looks complex. Producing this with a single spell seems all but impossible. Your gift is a fantastic boon.”

There was a chance the girls could become targets down the line. I thought it best for them to have some manner of self-defense available anywhere.

“That’s all I have to say. Tarte, return to your training. Dia and I are going to research how to kill demons,” I instructed.

“Understood.”

“I’m eager to hear about your hypothesis.”

There was no time to waste. We had to find a way to kill demons before more appeared.

“First thing to note is the reason demons can’t be killed. Their bodies are false—demons aren’t alive in the traditional sense. Each one possesses a core that contains what is their power of existence. Whenever a demon is injured, the core can disassemble the damaged part of the body and use its power to reconstruct it,” I explained.

“I have a question. Does that mean if you break the core, the demon will die right away?” Dia asked.

“Only if you can get the core to materialize. The core is some kind of spiritual object or mass of power. There’s nothing physical to be touched there.”

“Wow, this sounds really difficult.”

I’d figured all of that out as I was repeatedly killing the demon that attacked the academy. My Tuatha Dé eyes were able to grasp the existence of the core and the power spilling out of it.

“The reason the hero can kill demons is that they envelop their body with a unique energy. In battle, it spreads to create a field. A demon’s core is forced to materialize within that field, losing its ability to deconstruct and restore its body at the same time.”

“So it becomes unable to heal injuries, and the core can be broken, right?”

“Correct, which makes killing it simple. We only need to re-create that force the hero generates. It looked to be formed by taking energy and the natural mana of the world and fusing them with a specific wavelength of physical mana. The hero is naturally able to control the flow of magical power that inhabits the world to obtain an exquisite balance, but we’ll have to recreate that with magic.”

There were two types of mana. The first was physical mana, which flowed within our bodies. It was also known as odic force. Natural mana was the second. This was the force that enriched the world. It was divided into five different colors: one for each basic element, plus an attributeless version.

“It’s important that we get the distribution right. The field will only form when you mix the determined ratio of the five colors of natural mana with the required wavelength of physical mana and then bring them into harmony using energy. The hero can do all of that subconsciously, but it will be challenging for us.”

“My head hurts just listening to that. But I think we can do it. There are many spells that use the power of natural mana. If I can find common spots in their formulas, I should be able to deduce how to gather it. Do you know the ratio?”

“Yeah, I saw it during the fight. If we have a spell that can gather the five colors of natural mana, it would be possible to form the wavelength of physical mana we need and combine the two using energy.”

“Lugh, you’re making that sound easy, but unless forming the wavelength of mana and controlling energy can be done automatically, no one but you will be able to use this spell. Those aren’t things normal people are capable of.”

“I understand that, but a formula can’t automatically control the mana and energy. We’ll simply have to practice and master that ourselves. You and Tarte should be able to do it. I’m not so sure about anyone else, though.”

“This is going to be very challenging, but let’s do it. Success means being able to kill demons.”

“That’s right. I’m confident this will work. Unfortunately, even if we finish the spell, it will still possess a major flaw.”

“What do you mean?”

“Producing a field that forces demons’ cores to manifest demands vast amounts of mana. At best, I think I can only barely manage it, even if I push to the absolute limit. The user won’t have much mana left for physical strengthening while casting the field.”

If I took the drug that removed the limiter on my brain, I’d likely be able to keep fighting, but even then, I’d be battling with a severe handicap.

“Once again, Lugh, only you will be able to use this. If even you can barely manage it with your absurdly high mana capacity, how is anyone else supposed to be able to do it?” Dia questioned.

My quantity of magical power was a little over one thousand times higher than the average mage, and it was still growing. It was the only area where I surpassed the hero. My discharge rate outstripped others tenfold. Yet, for all that, I’d only barely be capable of using this spell. An average mage would have no chance.

“Let’s work on finishing this new magic first. We can worry about reducing the amount of power it consumes afterward. Regardless of whether I’m the only one who can use it or not, it will still give us a fighting chance.”

Drawbacks aside, this would enable us to kill demons. I could inflict lethal damage by using a low-mana weapon like a gun or an explosive. I could also release Gungnir beforehand and then produce the field the moment it landed. There were many possibilities, including leaving the fighting to Tarte and Dia.

“You’re right, Lugh. This will be really tough, but I’m sure we can do it together.”

“Yeah, I know we can do it,” I replied.

“Also, I have one request.” Dia blushed and poked the tips of her index fingers together timidly. “After we finish this spell, take me on a date. We haven’t been able to do anything romantic recently. I know you’re busy, but I can’t help feeling lonely.”

Her face broke into a smile. She truly was cute.

“As soon as our work is done, I’ll take you out. I promise.”

“Okay! No backing out, now.”

“Of course. I’m looking forward to it, too.”

A date with Dia sounded lovely. It was yet another reason to endeavor hard. Suddenly, I was filled with motivation.

Chapter 5 | The Assassin Goes on a Family Trip

Dia and I were holed up in the workshop for two entire days. We’d been researching passionately nonstop.

“And it’s done.”

“Whew. I can’t believe we’ve come this far in just two days.”

I looked back over the formula for the spell we’d just completed.

We’d spent the last forty-eight hours working on a formula for gathering natural mana at the ideal ratio. Had I done this alone, I guessed it would’ve taken me half a month. It was because of Dia that we swiftly discovered how the law for gathering natural mana functioned. Although it possessed terrible efficiency, we now had a spell that met the minimum requirements.

“The next part is up to me,” I said.

With the spell completed, the only thing left to do was practice. The field would only form if I could successfully gather the five colors of natural mana at the ideal distribution, add the correct wavelength of physical mana, and use energy to combine them. Controlling all of that came down to skill.

“Don’t worry. I know you’ll be able to do it. The real problem is that we can’t actually prove it works. I don’t doubt your theory, but we won’t know how effective this is without a real demon,” Dia remarked.

“You’re exactly right.”

In the end, all we did was realize a theory based on my recollections of what I’d seen in a battle. We’d only get to test it in actual combat, and failure meant death.

Should it come time to fight a demon and this formula didn’t work, we’d have no recourse but to flee. Running hadn’t been an option at the academy, but knowing when to escape was a talent like any other.

“Now we can go on our date, like you promised. I’m looking forward to seeing where you’ll take me, Lugh.” Dia cheerfully wrapped her arm around mine. Her smell and the softness of her skin were making me dizzy. The incident with Tarte a few days ago still had me feeling a little uneasy.

A date, huh? I’m sure I could find time for one when we’re away for my award ceremony.

“I guarantee we’ll have a great time. I know a decent amount about the royal capital,” I replied.

While the academy was in a more suburban area, it was still part of the city. I always thoroughly investigated the places I lived. Knowing how to use the land was vital for an assassin.

Dia rubbed her eyes.

“Are you tired?” I asked.

“A little, yeah.”

She’d hardly slept these past two days. Once Dia went into research mode, she forgot all about exhaustion. I had Rapid Recovery, so that wasn’t an issue for me, but she needed rest.

“I’ll carry you to your room.”

“Okay, that would be great.”

I picked Dia up in my arms like a princess, and she put her hands around my neck. Then we made for her room.

As was ever the case, her chamber was filled to bursting with various implements and books related to magic and sported no girly affectations whatsoever. I laid her down on the bed.

“We’re here, Dia. Can you let go of me?”

Although I wasn’t carrying her anymore, she didn’t seem at all willing to release me.

“Oh, Lugh, you never take my invitations.” Dia sighed, looking up at me with mischievous eyes.

I swallowed hard. “Someday. It’s still too soon.”

“I’m waiting for you. I’m ready anytime… Doing this is embarrassing, you know. But I’m afraid if I’m too passive, someone else will get to you first.”

She really is adorable. Hearing her sound so eager nearly made me lose control.

Early the following day, my dad and I pulled out the horses and the carriage and furnished them with expensive raiment and gaudy bridles that we didn’t regularly use.

Receiving a medal in the royal capital demanded a certain level of etiquette. That extended even to the carriage. Arriving in a shabby conveyance would cause people to make fun of House Tuatha Dé and call us country bumpkins, so this preparation was essential.

“This should do,” muttered my dad as he completed the flawless decorations.

An assassin needed to be able to deal with any situation. As such, my dad and I could do just about anything. Even the carriage was homemade.

“You’ve got a talent for this, Dad. If we had a little more time, I would have been able to procure some things from Milteu to make it seriously fancy, though,” I stated.

“It’s fine as is. We’ve made it good enough. Anything more would be pointless.”

As Dad said, this was just enough for us to avoid scorn. If we went flashier, people might start to think we’d grown full of ourselves despite our lowly station as a baron family. Aristocracy was truly fickle and annoying.

“Cian, Lugh, we’re ready, too.”

“Wow, I wouldn’t have thought the ever-practical House Tuatha Dé would have this kind of carriage.”

Mom and Dia walked up to us, their silver hair dancing in the wind behind them. Both were carrying large suitcases that held spare underwear and dresses for parties. I was being recognized for my accomplishments, and as my family, they needed to sport the appropriate attire.

“Wait, Dia, what will you be wearing?” I inquired.

She had come here from the Viekone domain with nothing but the clothes on her back. All the daily necessities were provided for her, of course, but she didn’t have any formal gowns for parties in the royal capital.

“I’m wearing some of Esr…er, Mom’s old dresses,” Dia answered.

“They fit her perfectly. I wanted to have Tarte wear some of them, but they’re too tight on her chest,” my mom elaborated.

“I’m sure Tarte will be fine in servant clothes,” I replied.

Each house was permitted to bring one or two servants to the festivities. There were exceptions, but most of them wore attendant garb instead of formal vestments.

Speaking of Tarte, where is she?

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than she came running over to us, carrying a large basket.

“I’m sorry I’m late!”

“There’s no need to rush. We still have plenty of time before we need to leave,” I said.

“That’s a relief.”

“What’s that?”

“I made us all some boxed lunches. I planned to get them finished a little earlier, but this morning, Mr. Hans brought some eggs as a thank-you gift for curing his cow. I thought it would be a waste not to eat them today while they’re fresh, so I added them to our meals,” Tarte explained.

“Ah, thanks. That was very kind of him,” I said in return.

Hans had gone through the trouble of coming by so early because he wanted to give me the eggs at their best. Tarte knew leaving them for after we got back from the royal capital would be putting that goodwill to waste. She had always been the type to show deep consideration for others.

“I’m sure they’re very high quality, so I hope everyone’s looking forward to eating them. I made the faloodeh you love, Lord Lugh,” Tarte added.

“That sounds wonderful. If there’s nothing else, then we should be on our way,” I declared.

“Yes, my lord,” answered Tarte.

The entire family climbed into the carriage, and the horses got moving.

“This is our first family trip in three years. We haven’t had any opportunities since you went to Milteu, Lugh,” my mom remarked.

“Yeah. The last time was when we went to Margrave Gullanar’s party,” I replied.

That had certainly been an obnoxious escapade. Margrave Gullanar was a prominent noble who managed the entire region and held political power equal to a duke. From the position of a lowly baron’s family, he may as well have been living on the clouds.

Along with all other noble households in the area, my family had been asked to attend his heir’s wedding. Despite our usual dogged persistence in avoiding such high-profile social functions, even we hadn’t been able to refuse.

“You looked so cute in that outfit I had you wear,” my mom said with a sigh as she reminisced.

“…That was traumatic for me.”

As per usual, my mom had forced me to don clothes she’d made. While that particular outfit thankfully had pants instead of a skirt, it still looked undeniably feminine. Adults at the wedding had fallen over themselves at how cute I looked, and the kids made fun of me for looking like a girl. It was best not to care what other people thought of you, but I’d wanted nothing more than to melt through the floor back then.

“You’ve been getting so mean lately, Lugh. I went through all the effort of tailoring your outfit for this ceremony, and you refused to wear it.”

“Sorry, Mom, but I’ve already picked out one I like.”

As a young executive of the Balor Company, Illig Balor required regular formal attire, so I had plenty of outfits to choose from. Naturally, the ensemble I selected was one I’d never worn out before, to keep people from suspecting that Illig and I were the same person. Maha had sent it to me in advance because I’d anticipated that my mom would try to put me in something homemade.

While making conversation with my family, I noticed a presence and gave my dad a sign. The Tuatha Dé clan possesses a technique that allows us to communicate to an extent without using our voices.

Dad, we’re being tailed. Two people.

I detected them, too. Judging by their movements, they’re here to observe.

Should we go after them? They’re decently skilled, but no trouble for us.

Let’s leave them be. I don’t think they’re enemies for now. Likely, they’re here to evaluate.

We weren’t even at the royal capital yet, and already we had a tail. My award ceremony had saddled House Tuatha Dé with a lot of attention.

Although our work as assassins was kept secret, my family was still famous thanks to its achievements in the medical field. As the Tuatha Dé heir and acting substitute for the hero, I was going to stand out whether I liked it or not.

I could only guess at who these pursuers worked for. My dad and I had decided not to engage them, but if they showed any intention of hostility, I’d exterminate them without holding back.

After a long journey in our horse-drawn carriage, we arrived at the royal capital. On the way, we passed by the academy and saw that the reconstruction was progressing swiftly. From what I could tell, it might reopen sooner than planned.

Some knights from the Royal Alvanian Order came to guide us after we passed through the city gate and announced our identity. We were to head to the palace immediately. Living quarters had been prepared for us.

That was an unexpected revelation. My family and I had intended on staying at one of the city’s inns until the day of the award ceremony.

“I can’t believe we’re going to be staying in a castle. My little Lugh has become such an amazing young man,” my mother said with a sigh.

“This is incredible. I’m sure the structure has plenty of rooms for visitors, but a baron’s family typically isn’t extended this courtesy,” I remarked.

“You never cease to impress, my lord… Still, I’m nervous at the idea of staying in a palace,” Tarte admitted.

My mom and Dia were in high spirits. The same could not be said of my dad, however, who seemed troubled.

“This is likely an indicator of how much they’re expecting from Lugh,” he stated.

“We don’t know if that’s their intention. It might only be a front so that those upset about keeping the hero in the capital don’t lose faith in me,” I replied.

Our carriage rolled along the city streets and onto the grounds of the alabaster castle. As one would expect of the nation’s seat of power, it was an impressive building. High walls and a deep moat encircled it, and countless ballista and mechanisms for pouring molten iron dotted the parapets. Soldiers were stationed in every tower, constantly on the lookout.

Despite such features, it managed to look resplendent. Violence and beauty coexisted in this place. I actually quite liked it.

Beyond the castle gate was an incredible garden that had to be several hundred meters wide. Every flower was in bloom, and the trees were pruned in an artful fashion. Decorative fountains littered the area.

“Wow…it’s so pretty. This kind of garden would be impossible even in Viekone,” commented Dia.

“I wonder how much money this all costs,” I mused idly.

The amount of money spent every month on this garden’s upkeep could feed hundreds. That said, this enclosure didn’t exist for pleasure alone. It also served as a symbol of the nation’s prestige, so I couldn’t declare it a total waste.

Our carriage and horses were taken into the care of palace staff, and my family and I were led to our quarters by a group of servants. They asked us to relax until summoned.

The rooms were practically a home unto themselves, with a fully furnished kitchen, a living room, a few bathrooms, and six bedrooms. There was also a simple refrigerator stocked with plenty of water and an impressive collection of foreign fruits. Should we have required anything more, there was a bell to summon servants at any time of day. It was palatial in every sense of the word.

Tarte looked dumbfounded. “All these paintings and vases are amazing.”

“If you broke one of those, you’d end up enslaved for life trying to pay it off.”

When maids committed careless mistakes, they were occasionally forced to pay with their bodies. However, breaking any of the expensive pieces here earned you a debt even a lifetime working in brothels couldn’t pay off.

“Eek!” Tarte moved away from a vase and cowered. I understood the feeling.

We each picked out a room. Trembling, Tarte asked me whether it was appropriate for her to be here, but I assured her that I didn’t mind. Depending on the situation, I’d prefer her as my servant to any of the castle staff.

As soon as we changed into the comfortable loungewear provided for us, an attendant arrived. They informed me that Epona had requested my presence.

Evidently, the time had come for Epona to bequeath some of her power to me using her skill My Loyal Knights. I wondered exactly how much she could give me.

Chapter 6 | The Assassin Gains New Power

“Tarte, can you come with me?” I called out as I was getting myself ready.

“Yes, my lord!”

“I’m gonna stay here,” said Dia.

I left the room together with Tarte.

The idea that the hero was going to grant me some of her skills seemed too good to be true. Still, I had no reason to refuse. I trusted Epona.

The higher you climbed in this castle, the more opulent the furnishings became. Only the royal family was permitted on the top level, and the one below it was used by those directly beneath the royal family in terms of rank.

Tarte and I were brought to the second-highest floor. As the lowly son of a baron, it was unthinkable to enter such a place. That was just how highly regarded the hero was.

I felt many gazes on me as I walked. These people already recognized what I looked like.

“Did they send around a portrait of me or something?”

While I disguised my face during assassination jobs, I still wasn’t happy about all this popularity.

Our destination was a conservatory that protruded from the castle proper. The ceiling and floor were constructed from special glass, making it feel like we were in a floating flowerbed.

Epona was in the middle of the room. As soon as she saw me, she ran up and bowed her head.

“Lugh, I’m so sorry! You told me not to say anything, but I ended up losing my temper and revealing everything. It’s because of me that you wound up involved in all of this!” She then proceeded to bend at the waist a few more times.

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“I’m telling you, it’s okay.”

I understood that Epona was the sort who would say anything when her emotions got the better of her. Going forward, I would have to be careful not to let slip too much critical information around her.

“Um, well, I know apologizing isn’t enough, so I thought I’d use my skill. It’s called My Loyal Knights.”

Guess we’re getting straight to it.

“What kind of skill is it?” I asked knowingly.

“Let’s see, I can lend my power to three people throughout my lifetime. I say lend, but that doesn’t mean I give away my strength—I still remain the same. To be more specific, you get mana, physical might, and a few of my skills,” explained Epona.

“That would be a significant boon. I’m going to be fighting demons, so every little bit will help.”

“There are some conditions, though. If you oppose one of my orders, then you will lose the effects of My Loyal Knights, and the same thing will happen if you suffer defeat in a battle with something important at stake. Those conditions still apply even if I were to die. Once a person loses my power, I can’t grant it to them again.”

Losing this boon if I disobeyed her meant doing whatever she commanded, no matter how impossible. That could be troublesome.

However, the biggest drawback was probably the loss upon being defeated in combat. Once you obtained this skill, you could never lose again.

I hadn’t known it had to be a struggle with something precious hanging in the balance, though. If what Epona said was correct, then being bested in training was no problem.

“Have you ever used it on someone?” I inquired.

“I actually have used it once. Shortly after I awoke as the hero, I used it on a huge man with blue hair near the Soigelian border.”

Wait. I know someone who fits that description. It couldn’t be…

“His power hasn’t come back to me yet, so I think he’s still doing well,” added Epona.

“I’m curious, what skills did you give him?”

“Berserk and some others. I don’t think I can choose which ones someone receives from My Loyal Knights. Those that best suit the recipient are chosen.”

Did this mean that Setanta, the man I’d fought to protect Dia, got his strength from Epona? He’d mentioned something about never having a real fight before, so he must have been incredibly strong from the get-go. Somewhere along the way, he presumably met Epona and became a monster.

When I faced him, I thought it couldn’t have been a coincidence that he happened to have Berserk and a skill that allowed him to maintain his reason even in that savage state. However, I may have gotten it backward. There was a chance Setanta possessed an ability that kept his mind clear first, and that was the reason My Loyal Knights had given him Berserk.

Epona had unknowingly confirmed something terrible. Her sensing that Setanta was okay meant he had somehow survived our encounter. We’d probably meet again at some point.

He did wager something important during that battle. Does the fact that he didn’t forfeit his power mean he’s aware that he didn’t lose the duel, but was instead caught off guard? If that’s the case, then that stipulation seems quite lenient.

“I see. So that’s how it works. Are you sure about this, though? You can only use it on three people,” I said.

“Yes, it’s no problem. You saved me, after all. It’s thanks to you that I can be the hero. This will help you keep your promise,” replied Epona.

I’d sworn that if she ever became a monster, I’d put her down. That was the very reason I’d been sent to this world.

“Got it. Then I accept your offer,” I stated.

“All right, here goes.” Wasting no time, Epona placed her hands on my shoulders. They glowed with a faint green light, which sank into my body.

“Okay, it’s done. You should be able to use some of my skills now, Lugh.”

“Was that really it?”

The entire thing was wholly anticlimactic.

“All I did was use the skill. Next, I’d like to give you this. I had to pull some strings to get it for you.” Epona produced an appraisal sheet, a rare item that revealed what skills you had.

I went ahead and used the magical item. The hero had granted me five new skills. Out of those, two caught my eye immediately.

The first was My Loyal Knights. I couldn’t believe I had miraculously gained the very skill that bequeathed me this new power in the first place. Regardless, I was grateful for it. I could use it to strengthen Dia and Tarte. They would be joining me in battles against demons, and I had been worried that their standard training would be insufficient.

Possibility Egg was the other big prize. I’d gone back and forth about picking this A-Rank skill a lot before being reincarnated. Based on the owner’s nature, it could become any other skill from S Rank to B Rank. Had I used my A-Rank slot on it, there was a chance I could have ended up with another S-Rank skill, but I hadn’t thought the gamble was wise at the time. There was a risk it could never become another skill.

The rest of the new abilities were all versatile and mighty, precisely what I’d expect from skills chosen from among the hero’s collection.

“What skills did you get?” Epona questioned.

“Surprisingly, I got My Loyal Knights. I wonder if that happened because I have experience teaching a lot of people,” I answered.

“I think it’s perfect for you… You know, I honestly believe you’re capable of killing a demon. But, Lugh, if you prove unable, flee and call for my help. I’ll come running even if it means disobeying the king.” Epona took my hand in hers as she made her declaration. She must have felt closer to me than I had assumed.

“Should it come to that, I will. But I’ll do my best to ensure that won’t be necessary. Focus on protecting the country, and I’ll do the killing. Those will be our roles.”

Hopefully, that would leave Epona less likely to destroy the world. Because the hero thought so highly of me, however, my death could now be the trigger for her going mad. I didn’t appreciate that twist of irony.

“Yeah, that sounds good. Let’s guard the world together. You’re more of a hero than I am, Lugh.”

“That’s not true. I’m as far from it as you can get.”

No matter where life took me, I was an assassin.

Epona released my hand and stood up. “Okay, I’m going to head back. Someone important is expecting me. I think your workload is only going to increase from here, but do your best. Actually, you’ll probably fare much better than me. All right, see you.”

Once the hero was gone, Tarte, who had been standing behind me the entire time, spoke. “That was quick, my lord.”

“Yeah, it was a bit uneventful. But this is even more power than I was expecting.”

If this was the secret of Setanta’s might, then I at least wanted to match his strength. I hoped to run some tests on these new skills.

“After I experiment a bit, I plan to use My Loyal Knights on you, Tarte. If I do, you’ll have to stay with me for the rest of your life. Are you okay with that?” I asked.

“M-my entire life? Th-that sounds amazing! Please use it on me. I belong to you, Lord Lugh!”

Tarte excitedly balled her fists in front of her chest. She looked adorable.

“Let’s head back. Tomorrow’s going to get very busy. You’ll need to pay more attention to your conduct than usual because of who we’ll be interacting with,” I cautioned.

“You can count on me. I’ve practiced thoroughly to keep from embarrassing you.”

Judging by how Tarte had carried herself at the academy, I had nothing to fret over. She had always been reliable. Truthfully, I was more likely to commit a breach of etiquette than she was.

While I’d gained some new abilities today, there were a few more souvenirs I intended on making mine before returning home. If the government was going to shove me into a deadly role, then I was going to get what I could from it.

Chapter 7 | The Assassin Rejects a Proposal

Eager to test out what I had received from Epona’s My Loyal Knights, I immediately borrowed the castle training grounds. After performing some drills, I found that my physical ability was leagues above where it had been.

The most striking improvement was my mana discharge. I had a little over one thousand times the capacity of the average mage, but my immediate release being only ten times higher than the median was a weakness. Now, however, I could output twice as much as I had just yesterday, dramatically increasing what I could do in battle.

“I can’t keep up with you at all, my lord…,” Tarte remarked, falling to her knees as she panted.

She was acting as my sparring partner. I fought her at her full strength while intentionally not empowering myself with mana. Previously, that would have ensured my loss, but not anymore.

“I can’t believe how strong I’ve become. I’m looking forward to using My Loyal Knights on you, Tarte.”

“Me too. I love the idea of something of yours flowing inside of me and connecting us forever.”

Is it just my imagination, or did that sound a little lewd?

Although I wanted to use My Loyal Knights on Tarte right away, I needed to conduct more tests. The goal was to gain some control over the skills I gave her. There were a few clear picks I wanted to ensure she received—namely, Limitless Growth and Rapid Recovery. The combination was downright unfair.

The battle with General Orc had forced me to accept that demons were not the sort of things you could fight while remaining in the confines of human capability. That’s why I wanted Tarte to gain powers that surpassed what most had.

In addition to two of my skills, I hoped to provide Tarte with Possibility Egg. Once I’d figured out whether I could control My Loyal Knights, I’d use it on her.

“I feel very guilty about taking one of your three slots…but I still really want you to pick me,” Tarte admitted bashfully.

“There’s no reason not to. You’re family, Tarte, and an important assistant.”

Initially, I had taken her in only as a tool. That wasn’t how I saw her anymore, though. Perhaps it was shameless to think as much after conditioning the girl to ensure her undying loyalty, but I believed our bond was genuine.

“Thank you! You are everything to me, my lord. Do you know who the other two will be?”

“One will be Dia.”

As my lover, Dia would be with me forever. Even excluding that, she was the most skilled mage I knew. I had no reason not to pick her.

“And the other?”

“That’s a little difficult. The safe choice would be Maha. But she doesn’t need combat strength. It could also be Dad if I wanted instant firepower… I’ll put that decision on hold until it becomes necessary.”

I only had three uses of My Loyal Knights. There was no need to decide them all right away. I actually preferred having one slot open.

“Personally, I think Maha would be a good choice. She likes you as much as I do,” Tarte stated.

“That does merit consideration. Let’s head back. Dinner will be soon.”

“I suddenly feel very nervous. I’ll do my best not to embarrass you, my lord.”

Tarte’s skills as a maid were excellent, so I was sure she’d be fine.

The dinner was not arranged by the royal family but by another noble household staying within the royal castle. All aristocrats visiting the palace and their respective kin were in attendance, and each of the fifty guests had the power to eradicate House Tuatha Dé at the mere lift of a finger.

As the man of the hour, I drew all eyes when I entered. Their gazes then moved to Mom, Tarte, and Dia. Those present were no strangers to beautiful women, but even then, these three stood out.

It was a source of pride but also unease. Tarte looked wholly flustered, but Mom and Dia were used to the attention.

Out of those assembled, I recognized Naoise Gephis. He was a classmate of mine and the heir to one of the four major dukedoms of the Alvanian Kingdom. When I glanced his way, he winked.

“I humbly thank you for inviting us to this banquet tonight,” my dad said. Then he bowed, and we followed his example.

We were ordered to sit, and Tarte stationed herself behind me. Considering our rank, we should have been at the foot of the table. However, we were granted seats of honor.

“Baron Tuatha Dé, I apologize for pulling you away from your preparations for the award ceremony. I wanted to ask your son some questions,” Duke Gephis explained with a shallow, pleasant smile.

The man possessed a medium build, and his hair was streaked with gray. His chiseled face gave the impression of intelligence. Although his attire was fancy, there was no hint of pretentiousness about him.

A quick look around revealed that most of the nobles here appeared to be upstanding people. That was likely because Duke Gephis, the sponsor of the dinner, had selected them.

I suppose birds of a feather do flock together. Do honorable aristocrats attract one another, or are they all subordinates that Duke Gephis educated himself?

We didn’t have to wait long to be served our meal.

“Now I get it,” I muttered.

Three appetizers were brought to the table: a dish consisting of walnuts sprinkled onto an edible plant called a sobier, berry sauce–coated meat from a large bird called a Harta pheasant, and raw Grasake salmon, all things which could only be found in the north.

The entrée was cuisine from the same region—bear meat stewed in a local style of miso. Even the bread was made of rye, known for growing well in colder temperatures. Every ingredient had been imported from the Gephis domain, as had the cook. This was despite the fact that you could have anything made for you at the royal castle at a simple request.

The act was meant as a statement against the central government. Gephis and his followers refused to accept the decision to keep the hero here.

“How do you like this food? Does it suit your tastes better than the cuisine of the capital?” Gephis asked me.

“It’s delicious, but the capital’s local fare isn’t bad, either.”

The duke was really asking whether I would align myself with the north, or more specifically, House Gephis. My reply told him that I couldn’t accept the proposal at the moment.

The atmosphere of the room became a little tense, and my dad spoke up.

“Let’s quit this roundabout way of speaking typical of the central government. There is no one eavesdropping on us, and I can guarantee that none of my family will betray this conversation to others. Unless there happens to be an informant mixed in among your honorable guests, Duke Gephis, we should be fine.”

Some did not take my dad’s words so well, standing up in outrage.

“There’s no chance any of us would betray the duke!”

“You’re pushing your luck, Baron Tuatha Dé!”

Duke Gephis scowled at the nobles who lost their composure, and they quietly sat back down. He had them well disciplined.

“I apologize for my subordinates. They tend to be the worrying sort.”

The indirect message was to prevent anything said here from being used as evidence against us. If Duke Gephis asked for my allegiance directly, it could be seen as treason.

None of that mattered, though, so long as our exchange was never leaked.

“Then I’ll ask directly. We don’t consent to the central government’s decisions. Are you actually capable of killing demons?” Duke Gephis peered into my eyes.

“I don’t know. I was able to slay the last one, but I couldn’t keep it dead. No matter how many times I struck it down, it revived. Had Epona not been there, I would’ve had to run.”

“Oh? You claim you were able to kill it, albeit not permanently. I find that hard to believe. How were you able to pull off such a thing?”

“I possess an S-Rank skill.”

“And what kind of power does it give you?”

“I’m sorry, describing it would be the equivalent of announcing my weaknesses to the world. So I’m abstaining from answering that.”

Only one out of every one hundred million people possessed an S-Rank skill. Just having one made you one of the strongest people in the world.

“I understand. However, does your skill matter at all if you are unable to end demons permanently?”

“Since the battle, I have devised a method of slaying demons for good. The only problem is I have no way to verify that it works. I can’t claim this method will be effective until the next time a demon appears. For now, all I can state is that there is a chance I can kill demons.”

Hiding it now was pointless, so I was honest on that front.

“I see… If it does work, then that would be a truly monumental accomplishment. Not counting the hero, you would be the first person in history to slay a demon.”

Duke Gephis understood how much this could mean. Others besides me might become able to kill demons, too.

“That’s why I’d prefer you didn’t have me die from some mysterious illness or accident and argue with the central government to release the hero. Instead, I ask that you bet on my success. You should know that I don’t want to die and will resist any attempts on my life to the best of my ability. I have an S-Rank skill, so taking me out will prove difficult.”

“Ha-ha-ha, looks like you saw right through me.”

The duke planned to neutralize me so that the central government would have to revisit their decision to keep the hero for themselves. That’s why there’d been people tailing our carriage during the trip to the royal capital.

“You are a fascinating boy. Baron Tuatha Dé, you were blessed with a remarkable child.”

“Yes, Lugh is my pride and joy. However, that surely isn’t the end of the discussion, is it?”

“That is correct. We have run out of patience with the central government in regard to this case. While the royal family still has good intentions, the central government has them completely under their thumb,” Duke Gephis declared.

While Gephis’s lands to the north and those regions to the south where Tuatha Dé was situated were made up of decent people, the same could not be said of the dukedoms to the east and west. Corrupt aristocrats populated them, and it was these people that Duke Gephis was referring to when he said “their thumb.”

“If you really can kill demons, Lugh, your fame is only going to grow. To the extent that the east and west won’t be able to ignore you. With you and the hero on our side, we could wipe out their influence. Will you lend us your strength? We will reward you and back you up with our full force.”

Having the support of a prominent noble house would be extremely helpful in my efforts to eradicate demons. The backing of House Gephis would also give me the most power I could ever gain in noble society. Unfortunately, joining them would limit my freedom of choice, making this a difficult situation.

“You entreat me to stand by your side, but what exactly does that entail?” I pressed, hoping to stall for more time to think.

“We will tie House Gephis and House Tuatha Dé together in matrimony. There is no stronger bond than one of blood. My son Naoise will marry your lovely sister, Claudia,” Duke Gephis explained.

“I decline your offer,” I answered instantly.

Massive wealth and authority would fall House Tuatha Dé’s way if we were to become connected to a duke’s house. Conversely, if we refused this offer, we risked making a powerful enemy.

Even still, this idea was out of the question. Dia was mine. I’d decided that I would live my second life the way I wished. If accepting this deal meant losing the woman I loved, then it was no choice at all.

“Do you have the authority to give that answer? Should it not be the head of your house?” demanded Duke Gephis.

“No. Because what you need isn’t the power of House Tuatha Dé, it’s the strength of a second hero. I expect Dad will leave this to me,” I replied.

“That’s right. The decision is his.”

Duke Gephis knit his eyebrows. He hadn’t expected a rejection. From a practical standpoint, I had every reason to accept. He was treating us with the utmost kindness, going so far as to offer Naoise, his son and heir, to Dia rather than to any of the nobles in his service.

“…I see. That is disappointing, but I have high hopes for your endeavors. Let us meet after you slay a demon, and I may have a different offer for you,” the duke said after a moment.

“I look forward to it.”

“All right, that is the difficult talk out of the way. Now, please relax and enjoy your dinner. Our chef’s dessert is exquisite.”

“Thank you very much.”

The man had dropped his offer right away. He saw from my response there was no hope of convincing me.

After that, everyone simply enjoyed the meal. Dia ended up really loving the northern cuisine. Seeing that, I discerned all the recipes used to make this type of cuisine for her in the future, and even better dishes.

I love Dia. I won’t let anyone steal her from me, and I want to make her happy.

Chapter 8 | The Assassin Is Named a Holy Knight

Following the dinner with Duke Gephis, there were many more parties and social functions my family and I had to attend. As I’d expected, it all became exhausting before long.

A certain number among the nobility considered it a sign of status to leave the management of their domains to subordinates and then live in a villa in the royal capital. Going to gatherings with other aristocrats became the daily routine. I didn’t know how they handled it.

“You’re so popular, Lugh. In just a few days here, you’ve been flooded with wedding proposals.”

“Mom, will you stop that? I’m tired enough already.”

The only reason I was being sent around the country in Epona’s place was to give the central government an excuse to keep her in the royal capital. I was a sacrificial pawn. Still, many took the central government’s announcement at face value, and I was bombarded with offers of marriage wherever I went.

“Dia, you’re getting lots of them yourself,” I commented.

“I’ve passed on them all. It sickens me to even look at them,” she replied.

Dia had turned down an impressive number of proposals while living in Viekone, so she probably hated these sorts of things even more than I did.

“Hmm-hmm-hmm, I’m actually glad to hear that,” my mother said. “You should have seen your faces during the dinner.”

Dia blushed slightly. “I was really touched, Lugh. You didn’t hesitate at all.”

I’d trained myself never to show emotion, but that had been a moment of weakness.

“…Please don’t tease me too much.”

“You’re so cute today, Lugh,” Dia remarked, and she reached over to hug me on the bed I was sitting on.

There was jealousy in Tarte’s eyes. If she wanted to embrace me, too, she should have done so.

“We finally only have two more days. It feels like we’ve been here forever,” I said.

Since arriving, it had been nothing but social functions. The medal ceremony was today, and once the afterparty concluded, we could finally head back to Tuatha Dé. We’d only been here for a short while, but I’d become quite homesick.

“This is your big moment, Lugh, so we need to dress you up nicely,” my mom all but sang.

“Ah, I’ll help with that. Ta-daa! I have a makeup kit. Even guys can look good when they put on a little,” said Dia.

“Um, I’ll do what I can, too,” Tarte chimed in.

The three of them closed in on me. It was a bit frightening. Dad saw the scene unfolding and chuckled.

“…Dad, do you enjoy seeing me in pain?” I asked.

“No, I was just thinking about how you’ve always been so strangely mature from such a young age, but that all falls apart in front of them,” he answered.

“Aren’t you the same with Mom, Dad?”

“You’re not wrong. It may always be the women who wear the pants in the Tuatha Dé household.”

I couldn’t accept that. As a man, I wanted to lead.

In the end, I was helpless against the mysterious power the girls of this family held, and they dressed me as they pleased. Fortunately, the end result wasn’t so bad.

The ceremony to recognize distinguished service was being held within the castle before an audience with the king. As the stars of the show, Epona and I would go last.

Carriages had been coming and going endlessly from the castle since morning. Many guests were from foreign countries. As this ceremony concerned demon slaying, it was relevant to people of all nations.

Dia used makeup to disguise her face slightly as a precaution. There were visitors here from Viekone as well.

Someone called me from where I’d been waiting and guided me to the door leading to the throne room. Epona was already there. She was wearing a dignified men’s blue and white outfit that befit the hero.

“Hello, Lugh. Have you been comfortable here in the capital?” she inquired.

“Honestly, I’m sick of going to party after party. I don’t know how you put up with this lifestyle.”

“Ah-ha-ha, you get used to it. How does my power feel?”

“I’m growing accustomed with time. The excessive strength threw me off at first, but with some work, I’ve become able to manage it.”

All the might in the world didn’t mean much if you couldn’t control it. Managing my recent jump in physical ability was trying, but I was handling it well enough.

“That’s good. You’ll definitely be able to kill demons.”

“Yeah. Even solo-type demons shouldn’t be a problem for me now,” I declared.

Demons fell into two categories, solo-type and commander-type. The latter were creatures like General Orc, who summoned countless underlings and crushed everything in their paths with overwhelming numbers. On the opposite side of things were solo-types, which couldn’t create monsters but possessed unbelievable power.

Without Epona’s gift, I still would have been able to defeat commander-type demons, but solo-types would have been difficult.

There’s no doubt both kinds were a significant threat, regardless of their differences.

“Honored hero, Lord Lugh, please come this way,” called a servant. He opened the door, meaning our time had come.

A red carpet extended to the throne, flanked on either side by attendees. I noticed a surprising face among the crowd—Maha. Perhaps a select number of prominent merchants had been invited to help make this a grand affair.

Maha had purposely kept her attendance a secret from me and stuck out her tongue when I locked eyes with her.

“I can’t believe that girl.”

Epona and I walked down the carpet together. It was embarrassing having everyone’s eyes focused on us. When we reached the king, we knelt and bowed our heads.

The ruler of Alvan looked to be a timid and overly kind sort of person.

“Hero Epona. Raise your head,” he commanded.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Epona replied, and she stood.

“You did splendidly in eradicating the demon during the recent battle. You rendered service befitting of your title. I hereby confer upon you these rewards.”

The king then read out the list of Epona’s compensation. A troubled look crossed her face when the king stated that everything would be delivered to her family’s household. She was quick to erase that expression, however, and accepted the prizes graciously.

“Next, Lugh Tuatha Dé. You located the demon in the midst of all that chaos and guided the hero to it. You also routed more monsters than anyone, including the hero, and you continued to fight until the demon was slain. Despite not being the hero yourself, you demonstrated strength and prowess that rivals his own. This birth of this young legend is a blessing from the gods!”

The audience got even more excited for me than they had for Epona. Someone from a low-ranking noble family being treated as the hero’s equal was the kind of success story that only existed in fairy tales. Anyone would have been delighted to be in my shoes. I was not all that pleased about this, however.

“Lugh Tuatha Dé, I bestow upon you the position of Holy Knight. You will receive privilege equal to that of the hero.”

“I am much obliged.”

Holy Knight. The name was a bit excessive. Being granted the same privileges as Epona was also a surprise. Her authority was far-reaching. With this, I’d be able to do just about anything I pleased.

“Come before me.”

I obeyed the king and approached. He placed a necklace on me. Strung on it was a pocket watch in the shape of a sword, a symbol of my new status.

“Lugh Tuatha Dé, I expect results in keeping with your new station. Go and wipe the demons from this land,” proclaimed the king.

“I will give my best efforts to live up to your expectations, Your Majesty,” I responded.

A few people started to clap, and the whole room quickly broke into thunderous applause. Had the situation been different, this may have been rather touching. Yet, considering I was tasked with killing creatures immortal against all but the hero, the standing ovation was like cheering at a funeral.

I had been searching for a way to kill demons, but the king and those in the audience didn’t know that. Thinking about this was making my head hurt.

The rest of the ceremony played out as expected. We then moved to a dance hall, and the gathering turned into a grand party. Music sounded through the large chamber, and many people began to dance.

It wasn’t long before I was surrounded and bombarded with questions. I stuck to safe answers to avoid making any comments that could be used against me. There were so many people approaching that I couldn’t even find time to eat.

As soon as I finally felt like I’d have a chance to catch my breath, the music changed. A crowd of noble ladies rushed over to me, seeing it as an opportunity to invite me to waltz. All I wanted to do was slip away. Then I felt someone grab my hand.

“Would you allow me this dance?”

“Gladly, proxy representative of Natural You.”

It was Maha. She couldn’t have made an appearance at a more opportune time. Waltzing with her would be much less stressful than with some girl I was barely acquainted with.

I’d learned how to dance a long time ago, specifically for infiltrating gatherings like this. Maha was also experienced in these matters, due to being the daughter of a wealthy merchant. She’d received a high-quality education before being orphaned and had plenty of chances to polish those skills while serving as my representative at Natural You.

“You seem tired, Sir Holy Knight.”

She was using a different form of address with me than usual. Illig Balor and Lugh Tuatha Dé were separate people, and as far as anyone knew, this was the first time Lugh and Maha had met.

“What can I say? This kind of thing doesn’t really suit me,” I said in reply.

“I don’t think that’s true. Even surrounded by vanity and fantasy, you can dance skillfully.”

“Can and want to are different things.”

“Then what is it you’re doing now?”

“I’m dancing because I want to. This isn’t so bad when it’s with you, Maha.”

She looked stunning in her blue dress, and she radiated a mature sort of charm. This kind of womanly appeal was something Dia and Tarte couldn’t match.

“Hee-hee, I’m glad to hear it. I have a prophecy for you. Good news will arrive soon.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Maha’s ambiguous statement was likely referring to something I’d been seeking for a while using the Balor Company information network.

The music’s intensity grew as it reached its climax, and the dancing quickened to match it.

A smile crossed Maha’s face. Spending time with her like this released all the pent-up frustration building in me since arriving in the royal capital. It wasn’t chance that we ended up dancing like this—Maha was worried about me and had sought me out faster than anyone else. I wanted to return the favor.

Using a special method of directed speaking so that others wouldn’t overhear, I stated, “Maha, after returning home, I’ll be heading to Milteu. I have some jobs to take care of.”

“You’re as busy as ever.”

“I guess so. But after that, let’s take a day to go on a date.”

“That would be lovely. I’ll dress up as nicely as I can. I’ll make theater and restaurant reservations, too. And then…”

Her plans came out swift. It was shaping up to be an eventful day, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Typically, I was always taking the lead. It was nice to be on the other side for a change.

I danced with Dia next, and before I knew it, the party was over. Despite the late hour, my family and I decided to head home now rather than wait until morning.

This trip had proven fruitful in several ways. The few chances I’d have to train during breaks in my cluttered schedule were going to be very important.

Chapter 9 | The Assassin Goes on a Date

Our long trip to the royal capital had ended, and we were on our way back to the Tuatha Dé domain. My dad and I took turns driving the carriage. At present, it was my turn, and Dia and Tarte were keeping me company. Dia seemed in a sour mood.

“I’m sorry. It’s not that I forgot about our promise to go on a date. I just thought I would be able to make time for at least one day while we were there,” I apologized.

“Hmph. I understand that in my head. That’s why I’m not complaining. But my heart is a different matter. At least let me sulk.”

I’d promised her time together in the royal capital as thanks for working so hard on developing the demon-killing spell. Unfortunately, we kept receiving invitations from nobles of higher standing and couldn’t refuse. I’d hardly even had a free moment, much less time enough for a date.

Naoise took the one unoccupied moment I’d had. After the dinner with his father, he’d requested a secret meeting. Truly, his aspirations knew no bounds.

“I’ll make up for it. I’m going to Milteu when we get back, so we’ll go on a date for real this time.”

Dia’s face suddenly lit up as if she had never been upset. “Milteu! There were a lot of places we didn’t visit last time.”

Although I was only going to Milteu because of what Maha had said at the afterparty, taking Dia along seemed all right. I had something I wanted to prepare for her as well.

“But will that be okay, my lord? As a Holy Knight, you need to be able to head out immediately when you receive orders from the castle,” Tarte said.

“It’ll be fine. I’m only planning on staying there for one night. I won’t be there for long.”

A Holy Knight was required to head wherever demons appeared. I couldn’t risk being out of contact for too long.

“Hmm-hmm, I’m looking forward to it. Where should we go?” asked Dia.

“If you have nowhere in mind, then I’ll be your guide. I know that place like the back of my hand,” I answered.

I’d lived in Milteu for two years as Illig Balor. It was practically my second hometown.

“All right, then it’s a date. Having you show me around sounds great. Just so you know…I will be seriously depressed if it doesn’t work out this time.”

“I’ll work hard to ensure that doesn’t happen. If a demon appears near some town before we get to Milteu, we’ll just have our date there.”

“That would be fun in its own way, I guess. I don’t get to go to the countryside very often.”

“We don’t ever have a need to.”

Unless possessed of a love for travel, nobles didn’t often enter domains other than their own.

Dia rubbed her eyes, looking sleepy.

“I’m sure you’re tired. You should sleep. There’s no need to push yourself,” I said.

She’d wound up getting approached by a deluge of young male nobles at the party, likely as a result of her good looks. As a noble lady of the great House Viekone, she knew how to handle herself, but that kind of onslaught would tire out anyone. What’s more, it was very late.

“Yeah, I think I’ll do just that. Good night.” No sooner had the words left Dia’s mouth than she laid her head down in my lap and fell asleep.

I’d told Dia to get some rest, but I hadn’t expected her to indulge herself in such a way. This did have its benefits, though. It gave me a front-row seat to Dia’s adorable slumbering face.

Tarte glanced at Dia with envy.

Suddenly, Dia’s eyes cracked open slightly. “You’ve always got that longing look in your eyes. If you want to do this, too, then just say so. That’s a bad habit of yours, Tarte. If you plan on refraining, then keep your desire from showing on your face. Hoping Lugh will notice your feelings and then waiting for everything to fall into your lap is impudent and spoiled.”

“I—I didn’t intend anything like that…,” Tarte mumbled, flustered.

“I want you to trust Lugh and me a little more. Just say what you want, and I won’t get mad, okay?” Dia said.

“…Um, are you sure it’s all right?”

“It’s fine with me. I don’t know what Lugh thinks, though.”

“But…”

“Asking him is the only way to find out.”

Dia was a bit tough with Tarte, but she was right. I found that straightforwardness to be one of her loveliest traits.

“U-um, Lord Lugh, can I rest my head on you, too?” Tarte timidly inquired.

“Sure, I don’t mind. In exchange, can I use your lap when it comes time to switch coachmen?”

“Yes! I’m so excited.”

Tarte then lay right down. Dia altered her position to make room for the other girl. Having two heads on my legs was quite heavy, but I felt strangely happy nonetheless.

All right, I feel energized. Let’s hurry back home.

After arriving in the Tuatha Dé domain, everyone took a day to relax and refresh. Once I’d recuperated, it was time to make for Milteu.

“…Lugh. You’ve always been superhuman, but soon you’re going to leave humanity behind altogether. How in the world were you able to get here from Tuatha Dé in just two hours?”

“I just ran with you in my arms, Dia.”

Had I been traveling with a lot of luggage, I’d have taken a carriage. However, if I had no baggage, then running was swifter. I still had plenty of room in my Leather Crane Bag, so there was no need for cumbersome trunks. Plus, I’d wanted to test the new powers I’d gained from Epona.

“Lord Lugh, I’m so tired,” Tarte groaned, and she sat down.

“That’s fine. It’s enough that you came with us,” I replied.

By running ahead of Tarte, I served as her windbreak and lightened the trip’s burden on her by a substantial amount. Still, not many could keep up with me.

“I was surprised I didn’t fall behind, my lord. I’ll go ahead and make reservations at our inn and deliver your message. Have fun on the date.”

“Thanks, Tarte.”

I’d asked her to meet with Maha ahead of me and take care of the necessary preparations. I doubted even Maha was expecting me to arrive in Milteu this quickly.

My date with Dia in Milteu was underway. We began by enjoying some cake at one of our favorite pastry shops.

“Mmm, the texture of this fresh cream is the best,” Dia remarked.

“This place never disappoints,” I responded.

This shop was on the expensive side, but not so much that it could be called a luxury establishment. The ingredients it used, however, were top-notch.

Most importantly, the chef was very skilled, especially with the fresh cream and sponge cake—their signature products. I preferred shops with true talent over those that simply constructed an extravagant atmosphere.

Dia and I sipped our tea as we enjoyed the cake.

“Oh, this is that tea you like,” she said.

“Seems like this place has become a client of Natural You as well,” I commented.

My cosmetics brand didn’t just sell makeup; we also offered herbal tea and sweets, targeted mainly at wealthy women. I’d created this particular brew by purchasing a plantation overseas and then raising the leaves through selective breeding. They weren’t obtainable from anyone other than Natural You.

Now that I think of it, Maha is a fan of this store, too.

The leaves should have been too expensive for the prices that this establishment sold the tea at. Maha probably sold to this place at a discount in exchange for greater publicity. This store was renowned and had a solid customer base.

The herbal brew tasted all the better when sampling it with this shop’s fantastic cake. Undoubtedly, many would want to buy the tea for use at home. Maha was doing a great job.

“We need to buy a souvenir. I really do feel guilty… Next time, you should take Tarte on a date,” Dia said.

“I’ve made preparations for us to pick up a gift when we leave for home, so don’t worry about it. Still, I’m surprised to hear a girl tell me to go out with another girl,” I responded.

“That’s not something I would normally say. But Tarte is so sweet that I can’t help but worry about her.”

Above all, Dia thought of Tarte as a valuable friend. What she’d talked about in the carriage the other day was for Tarte’s sake.

“…Also, I feel like I have some room to get away with saying things like that. The reason I’m comfortable with Tarte getting close to you is that I know I’m your number one. If that weren’t the case, I would probably get jealous.”

“Huh. I’m glad you told me how you feel. All right, let’s get moving. On to the next location. This date is just getting started.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

We held hands and left the shop.

Dia gazed up at me with excitement in her eyes.

“That was amazing. It’s hard to believe they did all that without casting any spells. Cutting a person in half without killing them, teleporting across the stage—it was all fantastic. Halfway through, I tried to detect mana because I couldn’t believe they weren’t using magic!”

We’d gone to see an illusion show. Nobles went to the theater all the time, so I assumed Dia would be tired of that. Thus, I thought this would be a good change of pace. This sort of act had come from overseas recently and was becoming very popular. From Dia’s expression, it appeared she’d enjoyed it even more than I’d expected.

“It was fun,” I said.

“Did you understand how they did any of it, Lugh?” Dia questioned.

“Yeah, I know how every trick was done.”

“No way. Tell me, then.”

“For the one where they sawed a person in half, they used a special bed with a blanket covering the legs, which prevented us from seeing under it. That’s how they pulled off the illusion. There were actually two people in the bed, both bending their bodies at the waist. The person playing the top half of the body had the bottom half of their body hidden below the bed, and the person playing the bottom half of the body did the opposite. The blade went in between them, so it didn’t truly cut anything.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

While the trick was very simple, it was tough to notice.

“All right, what about the teleportation?”

“They used twins. There was a hidden door on the stage with enough room for one person to hide behind. Remember how they threw a card high up into the air and then waved a cloth around? They were drawing the audience’s attention toward the fabric. The first twin used that moment to jump into the hidden door, and the other twin emerged from another concealed exit on a different part of the stage. It’s common to conduct this trick with a secret passage, but these performers took advantage of having twins by making the second one appear instantly to increase dramatic impact.”

“How did you know it was twins?” Dia pressed, hungry for more.

“If you looked closely, you could see they had slight differences in appearance that suggested they were separate people, and their clothing only made it more obvious. To the untrained eye, they were wearing the same outfit, but there were differences in the sheen of the leather, the cleanliness, the seams, and more.”

“…Even in matters unrelated to magic, mana, and physical prowess, you really are inhuman, Lugh.”

Dia’s words almost wounded me.

“Do you feel better knowing the secrets behind their tricks?” I asked.

“Yeah, I do. But it’s impressive you saw through all of that.”

“It’s a habit of mine. The techniques behind illusions can be divided into two extremes. The first is to deceive the audience by creating a blind spot, and the second is to direct the crowd’s attention to something else in order to keep them from seeing what’s really happening. It’s the same in my profession. When someone tries to guide my eyes a certain way, I instinctively look in the other. If I didn’t do that while on a job, it would mean death. That’s how I discovered the secrets to their act.”

The similarities between assassination and illusions went beyond basic ideology. There was a decent number of killing techniques that looked like prestidigitation. Because of that connection, I’d learned a fair number of magic tricks in my past life. It served as good training for my creative thinking, awareness, and dexterity.

“You really can do anything… Do you by chance know how to do illusions even better than the ones we saw today?”

“I do.”

“Then please show me sometime! Let’s throw a party at the estate. Not the aristocrat kind, though, just the sort where you hang out with your family. You can put on an amazing show for us.”

“That sounds fun. Would you be willing to help me with that? I’d need an assistant.”

“Hmm, as long as there’s nothing that looks painful like getting cut in half, then sure.”

“You’ll be a big help. Illusions look better the more beautiful the assistant.”

“Oh, don’t make me blush.”

Dia squeezed an arm tightly around mine. We then set off walking through the streets together at night. We’d finished with everything I’d planned for today, and all we had left to do was return to the inn.

Somewhere along the way, Dia came to a sudden halt.

I turned to look at her. “Something wrong?”

“Hey, Lugh, can we make a stop on the way back?”

Dia had stopped in front of a love hotel. These kinds of establishments were rare in rural areas like Tuatha Dé, but cities had them in abundance.

“Um, with Tarte and Esr…Mom around at the estate, I’ve been too shy to ask you for this kind of thing, but here…,” she whispered with a face flushed pitifully red.

It might have been my imagination, but she smelled sweeter than usual.

“I don’t mind, but if we go in, I don’t think I’ll be able to restrain myself. Are you okay with that?” I questioned.

“…Stop asking me that kind of thing. I’m already so embarrassed, I feel like I’m going to die.”

True to her words, Dia had already become unable to look at me and was casting her eyes down to the ground.

I’d wanted to sleep with Dia for a while, but I had been too afraid of what I might do once I lost myself to lust and had refrained thus far. Yet, if I didn’t take her now after what she’d said, I’d be unworthy of being called a man.

“I’ll be as gentle as I can, Dia.” I took her hand without waiting for a reply. Dia didn’t lift her eyes from the ground, but she returned my grip with a tight one of her own.

I guess it’s finally time, I thought, gulping.

I’d had sex plenty of times, both in this life and my last one. Yet this would be my first time with someone I loved. Admittedly, I was nervous, more than I had been in my entire life. Even when I’d killed presidents, I hadn’t been so anxious.

Thankfully, I knew an assassination technique to prevent any of that from showing on my face. I was sure that if I looked apprehensive, it would only serve to frighten Dia.

Chapter 10 | The Assassin Performs a Promotion

My first date with Dia in a while had turned out to be a lot of fun… Then she and I finally took the next step forward together.

I wanted to be gentle and not push her too hard because it was her first time. However, such thoughts quickly disappeared from my mind.

Dia was too cute, and I lost the ability to hold back. The end result left Dia exhausted, so I suggested we stay overnight in the love hotel. She rejected that, however. It seemed she didn’t like the idea of Tarte growing suspicious. That was a little unexpected, as I didn’t think Dia was the type to worry about that kind of thing.

The three of us were having breakfast at the inn Tarte had set us up in. It was plain to everyone that Dia’s behavior was a little off. She was constantly spacing out and blushing.

“Lady Dia, are you not feeling well? It’s been a little while since you’ve eaten anything,” Tarte inquired.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I feel fine. Just fine. Yeah.”

“If you’re not feeling well, then please let me know. Ah, you have a bug bite. There’s a red spot on your neck. Maybe that’s the reason. I also noticed you were walking a little strangely.”

“N-no, that’s not— I’m telling you, I’m fine!”

Her strange conduct likely had to do with what happened last night. I was having trouble concentrating, too. I had no idea that sleeping with someone I loved felt so fulfilling.

My eyes met Dia’s, and we stared at each other for a few seconds. Tarte looked at us and tilted her head in confusion.

Hastily, I cleared my throat. “Tarte, tell me how yesterday went.”

“Yes, my lord! I went to speak to Maha. After that, I cleaned our house. It was so dirty that it made me think I should take regular trips there.”

The house she was referring to was the estate I’d lived in during my time as Illig Balor. Maha still resided there. Her work was very demanding, so it wasn’t astonishing to learn she had no time for tidying up. Maha made more than enough money to hire someone to do it for her, of course, but there were things in that house we couldn’t let others see.

“I see. That was probably for the best. I’m going to head out. You two do whatever you want.”

I was going to meet Maha as Illig Balor. Thus, I couldn’t be seen with Tarte or Dia.

“Understood. Lady Dia, should I show you around like last time?” Tarte suggested.

“…I’ll pass. Walking is a little rough right now. I’m going to relax here and read a book or something. Enjoy yourself, and don’t worry about me, Tarte.”

“I knew it. You really aren’t feeling well.”

“Once again, I’m fine. There’s nothing to fret over.”

This was my fault. I’d offered to use mana to increase Dia’s self-healing, but she insisted that she wished to feel the pain.

“Then I will leave you here, Lady Dia. I’m going to go shopping. Lady Esri requested some things from me. Once I finish that, I’ll get a bunch of sweets that you like and return. Please tell me if there’s anything else you want,” Tarte said.

“Thanks, that would be great.”

Both the girls seemed like they could manage without me.

Maha was eagerly awaiting my arrival, and I wanted to get my hands on the item I’d requested her to obtain for me. It could make a massive difference in my fight against demons.

When I arrived at Maha’s office, I was immediately greeted by a giant stack of papers being shoved in my face.

“Can you take care of those documents for me, dear brother? I wish you had given me at least a week’s notice before coming to see me. That way, I would have been able to make more time. If I don’t finish all of this by the end of the day, Natural You’s business will stagnate.”

A second mountain of sheets was piled high on Maha’s desk.

“Sorry about that. I just couldn’t sit still after you told me you’d found what I’ve been after. And more importantly, I wanted to sit and talk with you. We haven’t gotten the chance in a while,” I replied.

“…You can be so simpleminded. I didn’t think you would get that excited over just a couple of words.”

Wasting no time, we both got to work.

Maha was busy. She had a lot on her plate as my representative at Natural You, and she provided support for my assassination jobs to boot. Securing time alone with her was tough, but that’s why I’d come today. Natural You was my company, so obviously, I could help out with Maha’s work.

As my representative, Maha was responsible for steering the enterprise along the best possible course. Together, we went through approving, rejecting, and deferring various documents. Looking through the papers made me realize Natural You had grown far beyond what I had envisioned. Maha was truly adept.

After some time of silently working through the avalanche of sheets, a visitor stopped by.

“Long time no see, Illig.”

“Hey, it certainly has been a while. How long has it been since we’ve talked, Beruid?” I answered, taking care not to speak like Lugh anymore.

Beruid Balor, Illig’s older brother, wore a gentle smile on his face. He was set to inherit the Balor Company, and for reasons I didn’t fully understand, he also worked for Natural You. Still grinning, he dropped more papers on the heap.

“I have something I wish to talk about, but first, please finish up your business here,” the man said.

“…Beruid, I came here on a different matter. It would help if you could push all nonessential items to a later date, if at all possible.”

“These are essential matters. Maha pushed aside quite a lot to make it to the party at the royal castle, and now we’re in a tight spot.”

“I would have preferred you didn’t mention that,” Maha remarked with an embarrassed expression.

Attending the party at the royal castle had meant she’d lost a few days. During that time, things had piled up, literally.

Making appearances at important events was part of Maha’s responsibilities. Celebrations like the award ceremony provided chances to hobnob and make connections with nobles and industrial big shots. However, Maha had mainly visited the royal capital because of me.

She really does have a lot on her plate. I need to do something sooner rather than later. I suppose I can just go ahead with that idea I’ve been mulling over. That should move this along.

I paused my work and turned toward Beruid. “Using my authority, I name Beruid vice-representative of the brand. Your authority is now equal to Maha’s, but she retains precedence in all matters.”

Swiftly, I drew up a contract, filling out the necessary components and adding my seal. Then I shoved the sheet at Beruid. He was at a loss for words, but I ignored that.

“I’ve decided to upgrade you from Maha’s aide to a fellow helmsperson. That means you now have the right to approve or reject these documents. Would you mind assisting us?”

“U-uh, is that truly okay?”

“Natural You is my company. That means what I say goes. I’ve been planning on promoting you for a while. Maha has spoken highly of your work, as have subordinates and clients. Their compliments are what convinced me you are worthy of this position.”

Maha was tackling too much alone. Most people would’ve cracked merely under the pressure of running Natural You, yet she also gathered intel and procured rare goods for me.

I wanted to lighten that load somehow. The quickest way was to leave the day-to-day operation of Natural You to another. Fortunately, Beruid was extremely skilled, and I trusted him on a personal level, too. The man was a mediocre self-starter, but he showed a talent for maintaining and growing already existing businesses.

“…I am so grateful for your offer. Honestly, I’ve been feeling very frustrated lately. Maha has taught me so much about your way of thinking, Illig. My job has been fulfilling and full of surprises, but at the same time, I always had the sense my talents were being wasted on the sidelines.”

“I assumed that was the case. I want you to make full use of your ability from now on.”

It was great to see Beruid so eager to prove himself. He was going to make Maha’s life a lot easier.

The three of us then started going through the documents at a quick pace. Fortunately, it looked like we’d finish with enough time for me to be with Maha for a bit.

“The end is finally in sight,” I commented.

“This really is much faster with three people,” Maha added.

“It’s mostly due to how absurdly fast you two are,” Beruid said, looking at us with an expression of astonishment.

I trusted that he’d catch up after a while. It was simply a matter of getting used to it.

When at last everything was completed, I stood and proposed we all take a short tea break.

Beruid turned to Maha and me with strong resolve plain in his eyes. “Uh, Illig, Maha. I have a matter I want to discuss with you.” Despite his determination, the man’s voice trembled slightly. Beruid usually had nerves of steel; it was rare to see him act this way.

“All right, that’s no problem. We’ll make tea and then discuss,” I declared.

“I second that idea. I’m very thirsty,” said Maha.

We’d listen to what Beruid had to say. Then, once he was done, Maha and I would be alone, and I could finally get what I’d come here for.

At last, a new trump card. Or, more accurately, the materials for one.

It was something I’d used all the time in critical moments during my previous life. With it, I’d be able to make better use of my skills. Honestly, it was incredibly fortunate that Maha had done this for me before a demon appeared.

Chapter 11 | The Assassin Obtains a Long-Awaited Item

I brewed some tea using leaves Maha had obtained from a new trade route that she opened. They were from a different country than the tea Natural You sold. Apparently, where it came from, people drank it nonfermented like green tea. However, I thought it would be better fermented like black tea after tasting it. That not only improved the flavor but also gave it better nutritional value.

“This brew is really acidic. It’s good for when you’re tired, but I don’t think this taste is for everyone. The smell is even harsher. It’s pungent and a little sharp,” Maha observed.

“I agree. I need to work on it a little before we introduce it to our stores. Hmm… Rather than making it palatable to a wide market, maybe I should increase the acidity and boost its medicinal effects. It already helps alleviate fatigue. Perhaps we could sell it as a stimulant people could take to squeeze a few more hours of work out of themselves.”

All I had to do was tinker with how the tea leaves were processed to achieve that.

“Do you think our customers would be interested in that?” Beruid asked.

“Even if they aren’t, soldiers will probably want it. If demons and monsters appear more going forward, sales for luxury items will decrease. That trend has already begun. Even the nobility’s expenditure on finery is lessening as they begin to make military preparations. We can make up for that loss by entering a different market,” I responded.

That was only an idea, but I was confident it would work.

“I like it. With armies all over suddenly on standby, we’ll be able to sell to them regularly and in large quantities. Monopolizing the market would be great for business, too. This has a good chance of success, considering the medicinal effects. I’ll take care of sales,” Maha stated.

“You’ve done it again, Illig. You were able to sniff out a chance for profit from a single cup of tea. I need to learn from your example,” said Beruid.

I was adept at this sort of thing. Herbs could be made into medicine or poison, depending on the species. My life as an assassin made me proficient with plants.

“I’ll work on the tea leaves at my other home and send them to Maha once I’m finished. Also, Maha. If possible, can you purchase the land and tenant farmers where the tea leaves are made like you did last time?” I requested.

“Got it. I didn’t expect you to like them this much.”

“It’s because of the medicinal effects. This is a variety that’s very difficult to obtain on this continent.”

Knowledge and talent wouldn’t get you anywhere without the right materials. If these tea leaves were unobtainable in this region, I wanted to stock as much as possible.

Business aside, I also desired them for personal reasons.

“Sure thing. It seems like Beruid will be taking over most of my regular duties, so my schedule is free,” replied Maha.

“I’ll do my best. I also want to try my hand at starting something new, but unfortunately, my plans still need a lot of work. Until then, I’ll put all my focus into maintaining and growing the business,” Beruid declared.

“I know you two will do great. Oh yeah, you said you had something you wanted to ask about, Beruid. Now that we’ve quenched our thirst, do you mind telling us what it is?”

Judging from Beruid’s exaggerated behavior earlier, it seemed like a relatively serious matter.

“Thank you very much. I’d planned on only bringing this to Maha, but I thought that wouldn’t be fair, so I decided I would do it in your presence, too.”

Beruid’s expression suddenly grew serious. He looked at Maha, then at me.

“Maha, will you marry me? I would like to receive your blessing, Illig.”

Maha and I exchanged glances. This was a total shock for me, but she seemed composed. She turned a sad look at Beruid.

“This is unexpected. I would never have thought the distinguished son of the Balor family would say such words to a commoner like me. Don’t you have a more worthy match? For you and for the Balor Company.”

“There is no girl I want more than you, Maha. As we’ve worked together, I’ve come to love you from the bottom of my heart. I don’t care about your standing. Your skill has more value to me than your place in society or your wealth. I admire your beauty and strength. My intentions are serious.”

“So you are. Then I’ll give you a serious answer. I’m sorry, but no.”

Maha bowed in apology. She’d answered instantly, without any hesitation.

Rejecting a proposal from the son of the Balor Company should have been unthinkable, and yet, she had. Accepting would have made her one of the wealthiest people in the world. She could have reclaimed her father’s company.

“I would ask for the reason…but I don’t need to, do I? I understand. But I’ll say this. You’re a coward, Illig. You’re aware of her feelings, and yet you ignore them. You hold her hostage by doing so… I’m leaving.”

“Wait, Beruid,” I called.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do my job. I can separate love and work. I have my pride as a merchant.” Making those his final words, he left.

I can’t believe he proposed to Maha. Actually, it’s really not so strange. She is a very attractive girl.

“Maha, are you okay with that? If you wedded the successor of the Balor Company, you’d be able to do any kind of business you want. You’d finally achieve your dream.”

“It’s fine. I am yours, dear Illig,” she replied before hugging me.

Despite what had just happened, she seemed as she always did, perhaps even more cheerful than usual.

“I knew it. Being proposed to did make you happy, didn’t it?” I questioned.

“What do you mean, you ‘knew it’? You’re wrong. I’m pleased because you got jealous, dear brother. You’re supposed to be acting as Illig right now, but you look so thoroughly shaken. Have you not noticed that your tone of voice has returned to normal?” countered Maha.

“That’s embarrassing. I still have a ways to go.”

I couldn’t deny that Beruid popping the question had left me feeling a little off. The idea of Maha being stolen from me felt like getting clubbed in the head.

Nothing had ever flustered me this much in my previous life, even the threat of death. Perhaps this was the result of living as a human instead of a tool.

“I’m always envious of Dia and Tarte, so this is a nice feeling. It’s only right that you know what it feels like now and then. Just yesterday, I had to hear about how you went to that hotel with your cute girlfriend.”

“How do you know about that?”

“This city is the center of my information network. I learn of everything that happens here, even if you’re acting as Lugh.”

“…You really are the best.”

“That’s right. I’m useful, so don’t forget about me. If you don’t tie me down, I may just get up and leave someday,” Maha warned.

“What can I do to prevent that?” I asked.

“There is only one method of tying a woman down.”

I understood what Maha was asking for, but I couldn’t give that to her. Instead, I tried to change the topic. “I brought you a present. It’s those krulone cream puffs you liked.”

“Ha-ha, I think you’re still underestimating me. I’ll let it go for now. I’m a very patient girl.”

“Sorry.”

“But don’t think I’ll wait forever.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

I’d seen to an uncomfortable extent how much a person’s emotions could change. That was why I knew not to take Maha’s love for granted.

“That’s lovely to hear. Let’s move on to the main subject. I finally obtained the dried marche mushrooms you’ve been asking for. Tribes to the far south use them to enter a trancelike state during their ceremonies held to commune with the dead.”

Maha pulled some of the fungi out of a bag and laid them out. I crushed them with a finger and rolled them over my tongue.

“…This is it. I can use these to make my secret weapon,” I said.

“What exactly are you going to do with these?” Maha questioned.

“I’m going to make a drug. Do you remember the medicine I crafted that removes the limits on my brain and temporarily increases my mana discharge?”

That compound was the reason I’d survived the demon attack at the academy.

“Yeah. I worked really hard obtaining all of the ingredients for it.”

“These mushrooms can be made into something similar. The effects will increase my concentration to its utmost limit and raise the processing power of my brain.”

“What use would you have for something like that?”

“I’ve become a little too strong. I can’t keep up with my own body. This drug should allow me to unleash all of my strength when I’m faced with a powerful enemy. There’s also a certain skill I want to experiment with. I need to plumb its very depths. Watching the hero fight taught me something, and the key to matching her will be high mental ability. I can’t do that without this substance.”

My goal was to craft something based on the refined narcotics of my previous world. Scouring through old legends and records of ceremonies, I’d sought out the ingredients I required.

Tasting the mushrooms left no doubt in my mind. They were exactly what I’d been looking for. If I mixed them with a few other chemicals I’d already had waiting, I’d have the compound I sought. As it happened, the tea leaves I’d treated Maha and Beruid to today were also part of the mixture.

“Seems dangerous. But considering what you’re trying to do, dear brother, it is necessary. I’ll hurry to get the foundation for a stable supply established,” Maha stated dutifully.

“Sounds good. Sorry for relying on you so much.”

I ask for way too much from Maha. Someday, I’ll need to return the favor.

“That’s all right. I receive plenty of compensation. Let’s go on a date. You went on one with your cute girlfriend yesterday, and you can’t refuse me after I’ve done so much for you, right? We have a reservation at a delicious restaurant.”

“Okay, I’ll get Dia and Tarte, too.”

“No. I said a date. I also have a room at a hotel waiting, but I’ll cancel that. Knowing your personality, I’m sure sleeping with another girl the day after your first experience would be impossible for you, dear brother.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

Maha’s eyes narrowed, and she put a finger to her lips. “You’re welcome. Hmmm, judging from that response, I feel like it could happen if I just give you time to find room in your heart to justify it. That will be the moment I ensnare you.”

I had to be cautious. Having that sort of relationship with Maha wasn’t disagreeable, but I didn’t like engaging in unplanned activities.

“It’s easy to be on my best behavior around Dia and Tarte, but you’ve always got me at your whim, Maha,” I remarked.

“If you’re looking for a submissive woman who supports her man…I don’t think I can beat either of them on that front. So I’ve got to fight my own way. In keeping with that, allow me to take the lead on our date.”

Maha and I had a great time together. Letting your partner take the initiative occasionally wasn’t so bad.

I was glad I got the materials I needed for the drug before I fought any demons. Undoubtedly, it would make a huge difference. I also thought there was a chance I’d be able to choose the skills I gave to Dia and Tarte using My Loyal Knights while on the drug.

As soon as I was back in Tuatha Dé, I intended to get to work mixing and testing the narcotic.

Chapter 12 | The Assassin Is Targeted

Now done with our business in Milteu, I decided we should return home in a carriage. Running home would be much faster, but I had a reason for my decision.

“Dia, Tarte, what do you think the most frightening thing in noble society is?”

“Hmm, maybe political power. Or money!”

“I agree with Lady Dia. Nobles don’t even think of people like us as humans. Ah, but House Tuatha Dé is completely different.”

Influence and wealth were definitely symbols of an aristocrat’s might.

“Incorrect. There is reason to be afraid of money and political power, but the mere possession of them isn’t something to be feared. The problem is how they’re used. Three principles govern a noble’s conduct: the desire to move up in society, vanity, and jealousy. The third one is especially troublesome. You can control the other two to an extent, but there’s nothing you can do about envy.”

“…Ah, I see what you’re saying.” Dia nodded in understanding. She’d been raised as a major noble, so she grasped my words quickly. Tarte, however, tilted her head to one side, confused.

“When consumed by jealousy, aristocrats tend to become aggressive. Initially, they might only badmouth the object of their ire, and then they’ll start spreading false rumors. If that doesn’t sate them, they may move on to traps or something more direct,” I explained.

“Um, what do you mean by direct?” Dia asked.

“They’ll try to eliminate the pest that has become such an eyesore. Should the target be of a lower standing, they can squash them easily. I don’t think aristocrats can stand the idea of someone beneath them possessing something they don’t.”

Regardless of the world, the tallest blade of grass was the first to be cut.

Egotism inspired bigotry in the nobility, and their reckless use of power led to some serious character flaws. Still, being jealous of me because I was chosen as a Holy Knight seemed a little absurd. The central government was only using me as an excuse to keep the hero in the royal capital.

“Hmm, so that’s why you chose to return home in a carriage and why you brought that up,” Dia stated, having figured it out.

“Nice job. Some dangerous-looking people have been tailing us since this morning. They’ve evaded revealing themselves thus far, so they’re quite skilled.”

“I wonder if they’re just observing us,” offered Dia.

“I don’t think that’s it. Were that the case, I wouldn’t feel such bloodlust coming off them.”

Many people were interested in the new Holy Knight. Most of the time, they were content to watch. However, I was an assassin, and I could sense murderous intent in my bones. Those following our carriage wanted to kill.

“Um, then why did we leave the city in this buggy in the middle of the night? It’s like you’re telling them to attack us, my lord,” Tarte pointed out.

“That’s precisely what I’m doing. This is bait. Being stalked until who knows when would be uncomfortable, right? So I’m having them make a move. I’ll turn the tables and capture them, then force them to confess who they work for.”

I needed to identify whoever wanted me dead and eliminate them swiftly.

“But will this really work out?” Dia asked doubtfully.

“That depends. Fortunately, it looks like they’ve laid a trap for us. See the two trees on either side of the highway about three hundred meters ahead? Look carefully between them.”

The two girls did as instructed and gathered mana in their Tuatha Dé eyes.

“Ah, there’s a string there.”

“I’d feel awful for the horse if we crashed into that.”

A tough metallic thread was tied taut between the trees. The sun had already set, so no one but me could have noticed. If the horse struck the wire, it would go tumbling over, and our carriage would crash to the ground.

“My plan is to charge into their ambush.”

Dia’s eyes widened in recognition. “I get what you’re thinking now, Lugh. Going through the trap is the only way to get them to attack.”

“That’s correct. Let’s take a tumble. Don’t worry. I’ll guide the horse so that it falls gently,” I said.

“That’s not what I’m worried about!!” Dia snapped.

We’d borrowed this steed. Any injury meant paying large indemnities. Considering Natural You’s wealth, it was a small price to pay, but I still didn’t enjoy wasting money. I intended to steer the horse with meticulous caution to ensure a graceful fall.

“I suppose you two should know what we’re up against. The assailants trying to kill me are fairly adept.”

Whoever wanted me dead likely believed my accomplishments during the battle with General Orc were fabricated. Even so, they had to know I was the best in my class and that I’d defeated a vice-commander of the Royal Order one-on-one. They weren’t going to throw amateurs at me.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” agreed Dia.

“I thought this would make for excellent practice, so I’m leaving them to you two,” I declared.

The girls’ eyes opened wide at that.

“What? We’re going to fight them?” Dia asked.

“I-I’m not sure we can do it,” Tarte admitted.

“You’ll be fine. There are three people pursuing us, and each is as strong as a vice-commander of the Royal Order. Knowing that, it’s safe to assume the person behind this is a major noble.”

A mage’s strength was primarily determined by the amount of mana they were born with. Thus, aristocrats engaged in selective breeding to maintain strong bloodlines.

This resulted in capable children who brought wealth to their houses, and much was invested in their education. Strength and political power tended to be proportionate to each other in Alvan.

Being attacked by foes of this caliber worked out very nicely for me. After all, if they had noble blood, then surely they knew something of use.

“This doesn’t sound fine to me!” Again, Dia protested.

“I’m telling you, it won’t be a problem. They’re no better than vice-commanders. With how strong you two have become, your victory is assured. All right, it’s time to fall. Be careful not to bite your tongue.”

A few seconds later, the horse walked into the thread.

I slowed the horse as much as I could without tipping off our pursuers and skillfully directed it to tumble safely without injuring its legs. Next, I detached the steed and had the carriage collapse exactly as our opponents hoped.

There was a loud neigh as the startled horse stood and ran off.

All right, that went great. From their point of view, it looks like their trap got us.

That’s when a giant fireball came our way. The spell threatened to send the buggy up in flames in an instant.

Only those who’d been educated from a young age could use that sort of magic. These assailants had to be the children of the head of their house.

“Ugh, fine. You’d better save us if this goes poorly, okay?”

Dia raised a scream, and towering walls of dirt rose from the ground to surround the carriage. It was an original earth spell of ours. We’d simplified the chant as much as possible so that the barricade could be erected in only two seconds.

The fireball was scorching, but its lack of mass caused it to bounce off the earth wall without breaking through it. In the briefest moment, Dia had selected the correct spell and executed it artfully. Her situational decision-making was excellent.

“I’ll be watching from a distance. Just relax, and you’ll win this fight.” As soon as I said that, I used magic to burrow into the ground and slip from the scene in an undetectable way.

Tasking Dia and Tarte with handling these assassins served as good training, but I had something else I wanted to see to as well. This trio of attackers was conspicuously capable. Such adroit groups always kept another person hidden out of sight. While the girls took care of the immediate threat, I would stalk for the unseen one.

The dirt barrier crumbled, and out flew Dia and Tarte.

Two of the three assailants stood before their third, who was already working on another incantation.

Dia and Tarte took a similar formation, with Tarte in the front and Dia in the back.

“Earth Wall!”

Dia cast the spell she’d used to protect the carriage, and mounds of soil formed around her. This time, however, there was a gap in the front.

This was something Dia had conceived to keep herself safe while intoning spells. Using magic as a primary combat method came with the disadvantage of not being able to strengthen yourself with mana while working a spell. That left you defenseless. Even with a vanguard to protect you, there would always be blind spots to the rear and sides. Dia’s conjured barricade eliminated that concern.

So long as Tarte didn’t slip up, Dia had a safe environment to focus on what she did best. She’d left a gap in front so she could launch her attacks. Had she not trusted Tarte, that kind of strategy would have been impossible.

As for Tarte…

“They’re…strong.”

She was at a disadvantage, only barely holding off the killers because of the Wind Armor spells she’d activated while in the buggy. The reason for that was simple: She was dueling two opponents at once. Both were clearly skilled swordsmen, and they struck simultaneously.

A spear’s biggest boon was its long range, but Tarte couldn’t exploit that under these conditions. One of her foes easily moved in close, and without saying anything, he forced Tarte back with his blade.

Tarte’s Wind Armor wasn’t only for defense—she could boost herself in a direction by releasing a blast of air. Thus, when an enemy drew too close, she could use her magical wind to deflect any slashes she could avoid and speed away to regroup.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t keep that up for very long. Wind Armor was powerful but brief. Tarte wasn’t quick enough with incantations to invoke it again in the thick of a fight, either. Her defeat was only a matter of time.

The third assailant completed their spell, which turned out to be the same sort of fireball they’d loosed earlier. Perhaps it was the most powerful bit of magic they knew.

How dull, I mused.

“Is that the best they can do? Their mage is nothing special,” Dia quipped.

She fired a burning javelin that knocked the incoming fireball out of the sky. The lance then continued forward, piercing the hostile caster.

It was an original fire spell that Dia had created called Flame Spear. Unlike most fire magic, it had excellent puncturing capability. It could be guided midflight, too. Dia had sensed that mage was going to hurl a spell at Tarte, so she’d prepared something to counter.

With the rearguard disposed of, Dia had no need to provide support and could participate directly in the skirmish. The two assailants with swords, realizing this, began to swing more frantically.

Tarte’s Wind Armor dissipated. Its time was up.

One of the killers dashed forward while Tarte was distracted by the other one. Her response was going to be too late. The assassin raised their weapon, looking pleased.

Spears were ineffective without proper space between the user and the target. With his distance and timing, the assailant was undoubtedly confident of his victory. He was mistaken, however. While Tarte used a polearm, it was not the only armament at her disposal.

Three gunshots sounded. Tarte had thrown down her spear, drawn her pistol from the holster strapped to her right thigh, and fired rapidly.

Handguns functioned well at close range, even better than swords did. That pistol shot rounds with twice the force of a Magnum, and its projectiles were strengthened with mana so that they could pierce through flesh. I had designed them to make that possible.

Tarte was following orders well. When a gun with a barrel that short possessed that much force, accurately aiming was impossible. Thus, I’d taught Tarte to use her pistol at close distances, to target her opponent’s center of mass rather than vitals, and to always fire three times, regardless of whether she hit the mark or not. And that’s precisely what she did.

If you aimed for the middle of the body, you’d likely hit even if you were a little off. Loosing three rounds ensured a kill.

Truthfully, she ended up shooting the assailant in the right shoulder, the left knee, and right through the stomach. She’d gone wide of his center by a significant margin. Had she aimed for the man’s head, she probably wouldn’t have hit at all. A single strike wouldn’t have been lethal. That was why aiming for the middle of the body and pulling the trigger three times was best.

“Lord Lugh’s gun protected me… Just one more left!” Tarte exclaimed, and she turned her pistol toward the final assassin.

The last remaining assailant immediately tried to flee. It was a wise choice. Dia and Tarte had bested their two compatriots, so he had no chance of winning alone. Unfortunately for him, the girls weren’t foolish enough to allow his escape.

A single gunshot cracked in the night. Compared with Tarte’s weapon, it was higher-pitched. A rifle round pierced the retreating man’s leg, and he crashed hard to the ground.

“Don’t underestimate my sniping.”

That was Dia’s Gun Strike. Unlike Tarte’s handgun, which was intended for close quarters, this spell created a rifle that fired accurately from long distances. Dia had grown accustomed to this spell at a very young age.

Furthermore, she’d used it conjointly with another bit of magic that raised accuracy, enabling her to sharpshoot anything within three hundred meters, give or take a few centimeters of calculation error. She could pinpoint aim for vital points with that level of accuracy, and all she needed was one shot.

Both of the girls had grown a lot. As I’d said, those three killers each rivaled a vice-commander in the Royal Order. But they were no problem for Dia and Tarte.

“Tarte, hurry and restrain him. He’s the only one left,” Dia called.

“Okay!”

Because of how dangerous these opponents were, disabling the first two rather than killing them hadn’t been an option. We chose not to kill the last one, though, so we could get information out of him. That’s why Dia had aimed at his leg instead of his heart.

I’d thought it would take all the girls had to beat those three, but I’d vastly underestimated them. I resolved to praise them for this later.

The girls delivered their victory, and now I had to do my part.

When killing covertly as a team, there was a kind of ironclad rule. It was to station an observer some distance behind those in battle. This watcher’s job was to either recover allies or destroy evidence if things went south. Should either of those options prove impossible, then that observer would return to base and report on what had occurred. Our enemies were organized and skilled, which was how I knew they’d have someone watching from a concealed place.

Such a person couldn’t be overlooked. The guns and original spells that Dia, Tarte, and I used were all things I didn’t want others to know about. There was no way I could let word of them leak.

I’d left Dia and Tarte to fend for themselves so that I could locate the fourth member of the group of assassins trying to kill me. While I’d thought it might be difficult, I got a bit of help from an unlikely source—the third killer. He’d looked in the direction of the observer in a plea for help when he tried to escape.

I crept up from the watcher’s blind spot and threw a knife that wouldn’t strike any vitals. True to my aim, I pierced the side of their torso.

“Hrngh…” The observer repressed a scream and let out a muffled sound.

I’d laced the knife with a neurotoxin strong enough to render an elephant immobile. They wouldn’t be able to move anything from the neck down.

“Relax, I won’t kill you,” I said from behind them.

The observer looked to be a woman. She had a slender build, but the mana surrounding her rivaled Dia’s, which put her capacity at the peak of humanity.

This came as a surprise. Her three allies were significantly weaker. Why was someone with so much power being wasted on watch duty?

“I have a few things I want to ask. Answer honestly, and I won’t harm you. But if you don’t cooperate, I’ll use a more forceful method,” I cautioned.

There’d been more than a little off about this attack. We’d come to Milteu in secret and had traveled by running, which should have been difficult to detect. How had we been found?

Considering the elite talent of the assailants, only a major noble could’ve been behind this. However, it all seemed a bit rash for someone of such high standing.

No matter what it takes, I need to get her to talk.

“All right, first question,” I began, but no sooner had the words left my mouth than the woman’s skin tore, and a giant snake emerged from inside her body, baring its fangs.

A monster disguised as a human?!

I clicked my tongue as I barely dodged the serpent. Then I swiftly drew a knife from a hidden pocket and stabbed it. Despite what should have been a mortal wound, it passed by me and made off.

“NeEd To TeLl EvErYoNe, ThIs OnE DaNgErOuS. dAnGeRoUs,” the snake hissed as it departed.

I felt a sudden assault of dizziness and fell to my knees. Some of the creature’s blood had splashed onto me.

It must have contained a deadly poison. One strong enough to immobilize me even though I’d built up a resistance to toxins from a young age.

Hands shaking, I pulled a gun out of my Leather Crane Bag. Then, unable to rely on my blurred vision, I used wind magic to find the snake and aligned my barrel. Instead of using my shaking hands, I operated the firearm using a spell that controlled magnetism.

I have no choice but to kill it.

I wanted to capture it alive to obtain information, but it was a snake. If I hit it anywhere other than its head, its powerful vitality would allow it to escape. The top priority was not letting it return to report what happened here, so I had to aim for its skull. If I tried to capture it and fail, it was all over.

“Gun Strike!”

I fired a bullet and pierced the serpent’s head. Unable to stand after that, I staggered back against a tree.

After washing the poison out with water I had on hand, I used mana to strengthen my self-healing and immune strength. This was the most potent poison I had ever been subjected to. Even making full use of Rapid Recovery, it was going to take a while to heal.

No normal monster held such incredible strength. Once I felt a bit better, I gathered up all the snake blood I could manage. There were many uses for venom that potent.

After a brief rest, I returned to the girls.

“Ah, there you are. What took you so long, Lugh?” Dia inquired.

“Sorry about that. I came across more trouble than I expected. You two did great. Well done capturing one of them alive.” I looked at the captured man. He was bound with rope, and Dia and Tarte had stopped his bleeding.

Wait a second…

“Why is he dead?” I asked.

Dia did inflict a severe wound with Gun Strike, but the assassin should have survived if the bleeding had been stopped right away.

“I’m so sorry, my lord! We treated him immediately, but he still perished. We lost a valuable source of information,” Tarte said, bowing her head vigorously.

I examined the corpse. “You have nothing to be sorry for. The cause of death was poison. They’d planned to commit suicide upon capture.”

There was something else bothering me, but I kept that a secret from Dia and Tarte. The composition of the toxin that killed this man was the same as what was in that giant snake’s blood. That meant they actually were working with that monster.

Also, he didn’t commit suicide after being detained. From what I could tell, he’d been made to drink an altered version of the poison that had a delayed effect. No matter how this battle went, these assailants were going to die. They’d been disposable from the start.

Dia furrowed her brow. “Hold on. This person is a noble. From a really good family, too. I’ve never heard of someone in so high a standing dirtying their hands directly like this.”

I understood why she was surprised. This man’s large mana capacity was the kind of thing found only in the greatest families. The crest on his armor was that of House Auraina, a count’s house. They were a major noble clan well out of House Tuatha Dé’s league.

Someone that important was used for a job that required ingesting lethal poison? Just what is going on here?

“…His armor and family insignia belong to House Auraina. I also recognize him. This is Count Auraina himself. What would move him to do this kind of thing?” I wondered.

“Really?! What was he doing here? He was an idiot, though. Even after going so far as to commit suicide not to reveal anything, he still used equipment with his crest on it,” remarked Dia.

That definitely didn’t add up. I would have recognized Count Auraina even without the armor, but it was still careless. Usually, an assassin would want to conceal any affiliation.

Perhaps that’s not the case this time, though…

“There’s probably some piece of information more important to them than whatever noble houses were involved, and that’s what they wanted to hide,” I stated.

From the very beginning, this attack had been bizarre. Knowing we were in Milteu, using a noble as a disposable pawn, cooperating with a monster—none of it added up.

Then I was struck by an idea. Maybe their goal was to conceal the true mastermind behind all of this? If someone like Count Auraina was a mere tool, then it was natural to assume something bigger was going on.

One possibility was a demon lurking in the center of noble society, manipulating many more nobles beyond just Count Auraina. The monster I killed was likely assigned to keep an eye on the manipulated aristocrats. If I thought about it that way, things began to make sense. What’s more, the one who took the observer role in an assassination attempt was usually of higher rank. In this case, the monster outstripped the humans.

Did the demon know my location because it had already wedged its way into the center of noble society? I thought this an attack by aristocrats born out of jealousy, but what if it was set in motion by a demon who saw me as dangerous? If that hypothesis was correct, then things were dire.

“Dia, Tarte, I have a question. If demons could wear people’s skin, infiltrate society, and turn nobles into their puppets, what do you think would happen to this country?”

“What are you saying? That’s impossible,” replied Dia.

“But if it did happen, the Alvanian Kingdom would be finished,” said Tarte.

I wanted to believe it was impossible, too. But given the circumstances, it seemed feasible. The sight of the giant snake biting through that woman’s skin and emerging from her body flashed before my eyes again.

“…Anyway, let’s go home. My attempt to capture these assailants failed. Dia, burn all the corpses so that we don’t leave behind any evidence of what happened here,” I instructed.

“Do you really want to do that? We have clear evidence we were attacked by Count Auraina’s house. We can get them to pay compensation,” she said.

“That could just stir up the hornet’s nest. Let’s pretend this never happened.”

“All right, I’ll do it, then.”

I watched Dia get to work. From here on, I would need to be warier of the central government. Natural You’s information network would need to look into that organization.

If I could confirm that a demon was among the lawmakers of this nation, assassinating it needed to be my top priority. It would pay for thinking they could do as they liked with my country. Eliminating malignant presences was the long-held mission of House Tuatha Dé.

Chapter 13 | The Assassin Develops Something

After returning to Tuatha Dé, I spent several days in my workshop, preparing the drug with the mushrooms I’d received from Maha.

The substance was primarily a narcotic, and taking it came with the risk of becoming dependent on it. However, it would give me superhuman levels of concentration for a short period. The world would appear to move in slow motion.

My design was based on the drugs that athletes in my previous world used, though my version was more effective. I used mana to nourish and cultivate the core ingredients.

“I don’t really want to rely on this kind of thing.”

Its power was temporary and would be nothing more than a boost to help me get through certain situations. Taking it was going to harm my body, but there were things I’d never be able to do without this chemical.

The mushrooms were incredibly intoxicating, though that was to be expected of something used in ceremonies to commune with gods. I introduced some additives to increase that effect to its utmost limit.

When it was all complete, I poured my finished liquid into a syringe. Orally taking this wouldn’t give me the full effects.

“This is the first time I’ve used it on myself, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

I’d already tested my creation on the death row prisoners being held underground in Tuatha Dé, so I knew it was safe. I pushed the needle into my neck and injected the liquid drug.

My head became strangely cold, my vision expanded, and everything around me slowed.

This world felt good, and I believed myself capable of everything.

As a test, I tried using one of the skills I’d obtained from My Loyal Knights, an S-Rank one called Multi-Chant. It allowed you to perform multiple incantations at once. While not very flashy, it was supremely useful.

With my mind expanded as it was, I now understood the skill more deeply. I wasn’t simply using it. I was diving into the core of its makeup and forcing it to evolve.

The result was a new side of Multi-Chant. I could now quickly perform incantations without the need to say them out loud.

That’s right, Multi-Chant didn’t give you two mouths. It used mana to perform a simulated second incantation. That other spell was cast by a pseudo-body that wasn’t limited by how fast the human mouth could speak.

Suddenly, I had access to a new skill called Quick Chant. Undoubtedly, it would be even greater than Multi-Chant.

“So this is what lurks in the depths of a skill.”

I’d found this ability hidden within Multi-Chant. Other skills had to have concealed sides to them as well. Just thinking about it got me excited.

And right now, the one I’m most interested in is…

“My Loyal Knights. Strengthening Dia and Tarte is my top priority.”

Dia and Tarte were strong, so much so that the knights in this kingdom weren’t a match for them. However, they were helpless against opponents like demons, which surpassed what humanity was capable of. I needed to raise their combat capabilities. That was why I’d wanted to use My Loyal Knights on them.

“…The effect of the drug expired. That’s as much as I can do today.”

Immediately, I felt nauseous and weary. My limbs may as well have been boulders.

I looked at a clock. The effect lasted thirteen minutes and twenty seconds. I made a note of that rough estimate for the future. Losing the power of the drug at an inopportune moment in battle meant death.

“Seems like the fatigue from using it only lasts a minute, but I shouldn’t allow myself to use this successively.”

Rapid Recovery helped me return to normal, but that only went for things like exhaustion. It couldn’t be used to combat dependence, the other side effect of the drug. Addiction occurred when a strong sense of pleasure was etched into the brain. The only thing you could do to prevent that was wait long enough between uses of the drug. If I became dependent, there’d be no breaking free.

Repeated doses would cause my body to build a tolerance, which lessened and shortened the potency. I would have to use this chemical carefully.

“I suppose I can only inject myself once per day.”

If that was true, then I wanted to give myself three days between uses, just to be sure. I was itching to test my other skills, but I needed to restrain myself. This drug really was a secret weapon—the kind only employed as a last resort. I’d have to take care never to inject it recklessly.

With my first test a success, it was time to prepare for the main event.

After waiting a few days to prevent myself from becoming addicted, I summoned Dia and Tarte to the garden. I’d already decided what skill I was going to try next.

“Today, I am giving both of you power using the skill I obtained from the hero, My Loyal Knights.”

“Um, does ‘give’ mean it will make you weaker, my lord?” asked Tarte.

“No, that’s not how it works. The user’s abilities are copied, meaning I will remain just as strong. So there’s nothing to worry about,” I replied.

It wasn’t an S-Rank skill for nothing.

“I’m excited about this. You and Epona can’t even be called human anymore. I’ve never felt like I had any chance of catching up,” Dia remarked.

“I agree. I have been doing my best to catch up, but they’re both so far ahead… With this gift, I will definitely be of use to you, Lord Lugh!”

The girls were both looking at me with hopeful eyes.

“This skill does have some flaws, though. If you either lose a battle with something important on the line or disobey one of my orders, you will lose your qualification as one of my knights, and this power will vanish. So make sure you’re prepared for this. From here on, you will never be able to lose again.”

“Hmm, I’m not confident about that part,” admitted Tarte.

“The best thing to do would be to avoid battles you know you can’t win, but that won’t always be possible. When you do have to fight, you’ll simply need to do your best and ensure victory.”

“I don’t think we really need to worry about that. It won’t be an issue as long as assassinations don’t turn into brawls,” said Dia.

“That’s true,” I agreed.

We were assassins, not soldiers. We killed our targets before they were even aware of our presence. Letting it become a proper skirmish was already a failure.

Dia brought a hand to her chin. “I’m more worried about the second part, actually. We’ll never be able to disobey an order from you. You’re not going to make us do anything lewd, are you? You are a man, after all.”

“Wha—? U-um, that would make me happy, but I will need to prepare myself first…,” mumbled Tarte.

“I’m obviously not going to do that,” I hastily assured them.

I could count on these two even without issuing them any commands. That’s how much they loved me.

After clearing my throat, I declared, “I’m going to go ahead and use the skill now.”

“Um, would it be all right to wait until I got a little stronger? I’d feel better about this if I was already strong enough not to lose to anybody,” Tarte said.

“If that’s what you’re waiting for, you’ll never be satisfied. Relax, you’re plenty strong already,” I replied.

Tarte hadn’t been born with natural talent. She’d earned her strength through hard work and lots of experience. It was something to be proud of.

“What about me?” Dia inquired, perhaps hoping to be complimented, too.

“You’re practically unbeatable in a battle of magic. I guarantee you’ll be fine.”

I didn’t know of any mages more talented than Dia. Even now, she outranked me when it came to spellcasting.

“Okay, then can you use it on me first? Tarte was the first to get the eyes.”

“That’s fine with me. Here we go.”

I filled the syringe with the drug I’d used the other day and pressed it into my neck. The other day, I’d decided on a name for this chemical: Dian Cecht. It took effect, and my head became cold and clear.

“My Loyal Knights.”

I activated the skill. Usually, it boosted one’s physical capabilities and awarded them random skills. However, in my current state, I could reach into the depths of My Loyal Knights and have it do something else.

Now I understand. I comprehended the true nature of what was flowing from me into Dia. With that awareness came the ability to alter the flow. I used that to give Dia the best skills for her among those I had and those I’d received from Epona.

Dia’s natural proficiency and these new abilities would make her a mage without equal. I could only imagine what she would truly become.

Chapter 14 | The Assassin Is Enchanted

My power surged into Dia.

First, I gave her Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth. They were the S-Rank and B-Rank skills I’d chosen during my reincarnation. They would allow Dia to overcome the confines of the average human.

Giving her the ability to increase her mana capacity was especially important. The notion of her possessing a mana capacity on par with mine was infinitely reassuring. She’d be able to use spells that previously demanded too much mana for her, and her capability to fight for extended periods would grow tremendously, too.

I could only give her two more skills. For her third, I selected Multi-Chant. Being able to cast more spells was an obvious boon. Quick Chant, which becomes usable after exploring the depths of Multi-Chant, was handy as well.

The final skill I gave to Dia was Possibility Egg. It could become any other B-Rank to S-Rank skill based on how the wielder lived their life. With luck, it would become something she could employ to great effect.

It was clear to me after giving her Possibility Egg that Dia’s vessel was filled to capacity. She couldn’t receive any more skills, so the process was complete.

Dia wrapped her arms around herself and collapsed.

“Amazing, I feel Lugh’s body heat coursing through me.”

Her cheeks flushed, and she sighed heavily. Something about this felt suggestive.

“You have now become my knight, Dia. You have gained the skills Rapid Recovery, Limitless Growth, Multi-Chant, and Possibility Egg. Take this as a congratulatory gift.” I held out a small bag.

“Hmm, what’s this?”

“It’s a bunch of Fahr Stones.”

“I can see that now!”

“That is the secret behind my mana capacity. Mana capacity and rapid mana discharge increase the more you use your magical power. From now on, your mana will recover at more than one hundred times the rate of a normal person’s. I want you to carry this bag around and pour magical energy into the Fahr Stones at all times,” I instructed.

“…You’ve been doing that all this time?”

“Yeah, ever since I was a little kid. Once you get used to it, it’s possible to continue doing so even when sleeping. One time, I nearly died by oversleeping and accidentally continuing to fill a Fahr Stone that was at its critical point, almost causing an explosion in my room.”

“That’s terrifying!” exclaimed Dia.

She wasn’t wrong. I’d only awoken in time because the Fahr Stone made a noise signifying that it was going to explode. If I hadn’t thrown it out the window immediately, the entire estate would have been blown to smithereens.

“After that incident, I came up with a countermeasure. This one is fine to use while sleeping.”

I produced a huge chunk of rock from the Leather Crane Bag.

“Is that a Fahr Stone?! It’s bigger than you are!” Dia cried in evident disbelief.

“That’s right. You know how I can produce Fahr Stones with magic now? This is a revised version. I made it larger, and its mana capacity has been doubled. There’s no danger of it bursting while you’re asleep. You can rest easy while using this.”

Developing that new kind of Fahr Stone had been quite a difficult journey. I’d only completed work on it a few days ago. With it, I’d no longer have to waste the mana I discharged while unconscious.

“You know, when I was serving as your instructor, you nearly blew up the estate with a regular Fahr Stone,” recalled Dia.

“Yeah, I did.”

“This is dozens of times bigger than that one, and it can store twice as much mana, so what would happen if it exploded?”

“I wonder. I’ve been too scared to test it. It could take out the entire domain. Should I have the time, I’ll try it out on a deserted island.”

There was the uninhabited isle I’d purchased to test Gungnir. The range of the explosion would be too expansive to try anywhere near human settlements.

“I’d be way too scared to sleep with that thing next to me!” Dia actually seemed a little angry. My giant Fahr Stone wasn’t without its risks. I’d have to be careful, too.

“Anyway, if you have time, pour some mana into the stone for me,” I said.

“Sure, no problem.”

Eager to test her new skills, she started pouring magical power into the large rock right away.

“Wow, my mana recovers as soon as I use it. I need to use a lot of it for spells as powerful as Cannon Strike. I’ll have to experiment with Multi-Chant later. Personally, though, I would’ve rather had Spell Weaver.”

“I can just write down formulas for you.”

Truthfully, I’d waffled between giving her Possibility Egg or Spell Weaver, but because she didn’t need the latter so long as I was around, I went with the former.

“That’s it for Dia. You’re next, Tarte. Come here.”

“Y-yes, my lord. I’m nervous.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”

“Okay!”

Tarte’s expression hardened, and she squeezed my hand tightly.

“Haaah, haaah… My lord, I…can’t take any more…,” Tarte managed, panting heavily.

“It’s okay. I’ve already finished.”

She looked more disheveled after the ordeal than Dia. Her eyes were damp, and she wobbled on her feet. When she leaned on me, I caught her in my arms and realized her body was abnormally warm.

I gave Tarte Rapid Recovery, Limitless Growth, Beastification, and Possibility Egg.

Beastification was another skill I’d received from Epona. When activated, it transformed the user into a half-beast and bestowed them with overpowering strength and speed, making it an ideal S-Rank skill for someone who specialized in close combat. That matched Tarte perfectly.

“You now have Rapid Recovery, Limitless Growth, Beastification, and Possibility Egg. Like Dia, you should form a habit of pouring mana into Fahr Stones,” I explained.

“Yes, my lord. Beastification sounds scary,” Tarte answered, now looking a little more stable.

“Maybe, but it’s undeniably strong. Go ahead and try it out. You should already have my power.”

“O-okay. Ah, sorry, th-that was improper of me,” Tarte said, and she hastily separated herself from me.

In her panic, though, she pushed away too hard and fell on her backside. I helped her up.

“Do you understand how to use Beastification?”

“Y-yes, somehow. Hyahhh!” Tarte shouted adorably.

The skill began to transform Tarte into an animal—at least, in a sense. I’d expected her to gain some bestial qualities, but the results were still surprising.

Dia looked at Tarte and burst out laughing. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Tarte, what is that supposed to be? I thought you’d be down on all fours and roaring at us.”

“So this is Beastification…I guess,” I commented.

“U-um, what happened? My bottom and head feel a little heavy…”

I produced a mirror from my Leather Crane Bag and passed it to Tarte. Immediately, she flushed red, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

“Wha—?! Did something go wrong?!” she shrieked.

“No, this suits you really well,” I answered.

“You look so cute!” added Dia.

Usually, the user’s muscles swelled, and they’d grow fangs and fur and display animalistic traits.

But in Tarte’s case…

“I only grew fox ears and a tail!”

That’s right. She now sported red fox ears tipped with black fur and a fluffy tail that ended in white hair.

The big fluffy tail had pushed down her underwear and lifted up her skirt, but she was too distracted to notice.

I’ll have to make clothes that compensate for the new appendage later. I’m fine with this view myself, but I don’t want anyone else seeing her like this.

“I think you look lovely. This look really suits you!” Dia complimented.

Tarte remained unconvinced. “Aww, I’m not sure about this.”

“You seem to have activated Beastification successfully, so how about testing your new power?” I suggested.

“Yes, my lord. My hearing has improved a lot. I can sense the presence of other living things more strongly than before, and my nose is more sensitive as well.”

“All characteristics of foxes. Next, try jumping gently.”

“Okay!”

Tarte leaped several meters.

“Huuuuh? Why did I go this far?”

She managed to land neatly despite her panic, making almost no sound as she did so. Beasts often killed by taking advantage of their soft and springy joints.

Tarte’s physical abilities had clearly increased substantially. Foxes were naturally strong jumpers. Her endurance and speed had likely been bolstered, too.

The effects of Beastification differed based on the animal the transformation was based on. Foxes lacked brawn, but Tarte’s swiftness, leg strength, leaping ability, flexibility, sense of hearing and smell, and perception were all greater than they had been. These traits were perfect for Tarte’s fighting style.

Admittedly, her adorable appearance was also a plus. I wanted to stroke her tail. That could wait until another day, though.

“You two are now my knights. I look forward to your service,” I stated.

“Yeah, you can count on me.”

“This appearance is a little embarrassing, but I’ll do my best.”

The ever-reliable Dia and Tarte had instantly become even stronger. Dia could provide powerful support from the rearguard using Multi-Chant while Tarte maintained control on the front lines with her Beastification.

Their mana capacities would only increase with time, too. With any luck, Possibility Egg would give them both yet another jump in might. When we engaged demons, I would be busy forming the field needed to kill them, so Dia and Tarte would have to fight. Any extra power they could get was going to be helpful.

I couldn’t afford to slack off, either. I wanted my Possibility Egg to hatch, too, after all.

“?!”

Suddenly, I detected an intense, predatory gaze. I turned to find Tarte looking at me. The sensation was gone now.

“What is it, my lord?” she inquired.

“Don’t worry. It’s nothing.”

Tarte herself seemed unchanged, if a little feverish. My nose caught a sweet scent emanating from somewhere. I felt as though if I lost my focus, I’d be drawn to it like a bee to a flower.

What in the world was that presence I felt?

Chapter 15 | The Assassin Gives Something a Try

Yesterday, I’d succeeded in giving Dia and Tarte their new strength and skills. As such, I decided all of today would be spent practicing with those new powers.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha! Look at this, Lugh. Multi-Chant is incredible!”

With a large grin on her face, Dia used a magic formula. At first glance, it just looked like a regular Gun Strike, but it quickly became something more.

Dia produced iron, transfigured it into the shape of a gun, loaded bullets into it, and set off an explosion within the barrel. Initially, that process had to be performed in steps, which took a decent amount of time. However, Dia now performed the entire process simultaneously, which enabled her to use Gun Strike far swifter than before.

“You continue to impress, Dia. I can’t believe you can already execute four incantations at once. It took me a week to get to that point,” I said.

Truthfully, she wasn’t intoning four spells simultaneously. What she was doing was even more incredible. She finely adjusted the moment she began each of the four incantations so that they all finished at the desired time.

Anything less would have meant not loading the bullets the second the gun was formed or firing them immediately after. Already, Dia had a great handle on this procedure.

“This skill seems perfect for me,” she remarked.

“You’re probably faster at calculating magic formulas than me,” I said in return.

Dia was a genius when it came to magic, though that didn’t explain why she was better than me. Since I was a small child, I’d been honing my mind, burdening it to an extreme that would have broken an ordinary person and then healing with Rapid Recovery.

It didn’t matter how intelligent Dia was; she shouldn’t have been able to surpass my superhuman calculations. Maybe she had a skill that made it possible.

“Have you ever used an appraisal sheet?” I inquired.

“Never. They were impossible to obtain in my country,” answered Dia.

“Then let’s find one and try it out. We’ll do it for you, too, Tarte.”

Because of how scarce they were, appraisal sheets weren’t an option for most. Those who could make them were closely guarded. The items couldn’t be produced without government approval.

Even with my information network and funds from the Balor Company, I couldn’t get my hands on an appraisal sheet. I could have bribed a noble with enough sway to get me one, but that was a considerable risk.

Things were different now that I was a Holy Knight, though. My privilege afforded me access to appraisal sheets. I needed to check Dia’s and Tarte’s skills.

“That’s exciting. I probably have skills just like you do, Lugh,” said Dia.

“I definitely don’t have any,” Tarte mumbled dejectedly.

“That’s impossible. You were undoubtedly born with something,” I responded.

The odds of either possessing an S-Rank skill or even an A-Rank one were slim, but it wouldn’t be surprising to discover they had B-Rank or lower ones. Learning what they were could help Dia and Tarte grow even stronger. Once training was done, I had to get to work finding appraisal sheets.

“By the way, how many incantations can you perform simultaneously with Multi-Chant, Dia?” I asked.

“Hmm, six at the most, but they would all have to be simple formulas.”

“Wow, that’s more than me.”

The most I could manage was five. With that many, my control started to waver, though, so my reliable limit was four.

“I figured something out after testing some things. We’re not just performing incantations simultaneously. We’re converting multiple elements of mana at the same time as well,” Dia explained.

“You’re probably right. If that wasn’t the case, then you wouldn’t be able to use the earth spell to create iron and the fire spell to trigger the explosion at the same time,” I replied.

“That’s actually the part of this I’m the most interested in. Previously, the spells we were able to cast were restricted to a single element. However, this might mean we can create magic that employs multiple elements of mana.”

I hadn’t even thought about that. This sounded like a promising notion.

“I’ll try to come up with some spells that use multiple elements, too. All the possibilities are going to make this more difficult,” I said.

“I already have more ideas than I know what to do with. I’m really excited, but I don’t know where to begin. The first things that come to mind are a vapor explosion using fire and water or a flame storm using fire and wind. Perhaps I could use earth and fire to make a more efficient version of Gun Strike. We could skip forming the gun and just use an explosion to scatter fragments of iron. That sounds fun!” Dia was practically hopping with excitement.

This was an evolution. We were stepping into wholly unexplored territory and developing a new dimension of magic. Even the things Dia proposed off the top of her head would be beneficial.

“Hmm, I might be able to make that last one right now. It’s only a minor change from the formula we’ve been using, so wait a second.”

Dia then pulled out a sheet of paper and a feather pen from her bag, sat down on the ground, and began to scribble on the page hurriedly. Developing spells had basically become her life’s work. She knew more rules than me, and her penmanship with the runes was adept. She was possibly the only person who could create a totally new spell off the cuff like this.

“Okay, it’s done. Make it into a spell, Lugh.”

The Spell Weaver skill was needed to make her creations into spells, so my cooperation was essential.

“I’m fine with chanting it, but this is safe, right?”

“Believe in your girlfriend, Lugh.”

After studying the formula, I decided it appeared all right. I began the enchantment. Just like when intoning multiple spells at once with Multi-Chant, two different types of mana, fire and earth, both went through an elemental conversion.

It worked perfectly. I finished the recitation and cast the spell.

“Pellet Shot.”

The magic created over one hundred fragments of iron, which were then blasted forward by an explosion.

Leave it to Dia to figure out how to keep them from flying in the wrong direction.

This attack was equivalent to a shotgun with a large diameter. The range was ten meters forward, and it extended to five meters on each side as well.

I’d limited the amount of mana I’d used when casting, but increasing the power would produce more iron fragments and a greater blast force, making for a devastating attack. The formula was short, so the incantation took four seconds to perform.

“This is a good spell. The range is inferior to Gun Strike, but in close quarters, this one is more useful,” I said.

“Mages are in danger if anyone gets close to them. I can use this to fend any attackers off,” Dia remarked.

With its decent scope and wide area of effect, dodging this spell was nearly impossible. The pellets were small, but each one had plenty of force.

Dia performed the spell as well and smiled with clear satisfaction.

“If you keep developing useful magic like this, it will help us a lot going forward,” I stated.

“Hmm-hmm, that’s the plan. I want to make something that uses all four elements! Ooh, an amazing idea just popped into my head. I can’t wait to try it.”

Earth, wind, fire, and water. It was a little difficult to imagine a spell that used all four of those elements. But if Dia said it was going to be amazing, then I could get my hopes up.

After that, Dia and I spent a while discussing spells we could create using multiple elements. Before we knew it, we had fallen deep into conversation over the infinite possibilities this one new concept had opened up.

We eventually reached a good stopping place, and I left Dia and headed to Tarte.

“You’re working hard.”

“Yes, my lord! I love how light my body feels.”

She was practicing with her spear. The recent increase in physical power left her struggling to control her body. While faster and stronger, she was a little clumsy. Still, Tarte had a strong foundation. It wouldn’t take long until she acclimated.

The next bit was going to be more difficult, though.

“Tarte, how about trying Beastification? There are a number of things we need to verify, including how long the effect lasts,” I said.

Beastification didn’t remain active indefinitely. Once willingly triggered, it remained in effect for a limited amount of time.

Effectively utilizing it meant understanding how long it persisted and the conditions for activating it again. I could use the skill, too, so I had a pretty good idea of all that. However, my transformation was based on a different animal. I wanted information accurate to Tarte.

“Yes, um, well, there are a number of problems with it, so I thought it might be better to wait until some other time…,” Tarte protested meekly.

“Issues or not, it’s a useful skill. Master it, and it will become a deadly weapon,” I replied.

“…Understood. I’ll do it.”

Something about the way Tarte was acting felt off. It appeared as though she was steeling herself. Thinking back, her behavior had been strange ever since she’d used Beastification yesterday.

Tarte activated the skill, and her cute fox ears and fluffy tail appeared.

Yesterday, her tail had pushed down her underwear and lifted her skirt, but that didn’t happen this time, thanks to the low-rise underwear I’d prepared. What’s more, I’d given her a jacket that covered her skirt, and both had aligned slits for her tail to pop through without causing any problems.

I watched as the appendage smoothly protruded through the apertures without lifting Tarte’s hem this time. Yesterday, I’d carefully noted where exactly the tail appeared. That meticulous measurement had paid off.

“I want combat data from you, Tarte. Let’s have a light spar—no, let’s make a match out of it. We won’t know how strong you’ve become unless you go all out,” I decided.

After passing her a wooden spear with cloth wrapped over its tip, I drew my sword.

“Okay! I’m going to devour you, Lord Lugh!”

Tarte’s eyes looked different than usual, perhaps due to Beastification. They were usually timid and docile, but now they appeared combative. The glint in her eyes was positively aggressive.

Whenever we fought, she always gave some self-disparaging comment about how she had no chance of beating me. That was not the case this time, however. While Tarte was more confident, it didn’t feel right. The girl definitely looked ready to pounce on and eat me, but I thought what she wanted was something a little different.

Regardless, Tarte was serious about trying to best me. A chance to use my full strength to judge how capable she was after Beastification sounded fun.

Chapter 16 | The Assassin Is Defeated

My match with Tarte began. I had a hunch she wouldn’t act like her usual timid self, and that turned out to be correct.

Her fighting style was different, too. Typically, she began by studying me. On this occasion, she rushed forward with a forceful one-handed spear thrust, her swiftest and longest-reaching attack.

Tarte was going out of her way to take the initiative. It was an effective maneuver because it came from a range beyond the reach of my sword.

She’s fast.

I’d assumed her speed would increase with Beastification, but this surpassed my expectations. I was in a tough spot.

Curiously, Tarte handled herself perfectly, despite Beastification raising her strength and swiftness. Compared with how clumsy she’d looked during training only moments ago, it was shocking.

I just barely managed to deflect Tarte’s attack with my sword, but she quickly drew her spear back and started thrusting at me in rapid succession.

Every one of her strikes made good use of distance, always coming at me from a length where I couldn’t counterattack.

While quick, the blows all had substantial weight behind them, too. Had Tarte just been using her arms, I would have been able to knock her weapon aside and move in. However, she threw her whole body into every thrust.

Whenever I tried to get near her, she moved back. Every step she took was levelheaded and astute.

I thought I would try to wait for her to run out of breath, but her stamina had increased, too. As I was dealing with her constant pressure, I actually seemed like the one who’d give out first.

My hands went numb. I couldn’t afford to take any more of this. My defeat was imminent.

“I’ve never seen you fight like this, Tarte!”

Still, I refused to allow myself to lose. Since moving in close wasn’t an option, I jumped back to escape Tarte’s reach. Then I took a moment to collect myself. I needed to do something about the dullness in my hands and my labored breath.

Tarte froze for a moment. In a battle between a spear and a sword, the latter needed to get within striking range. Tarte knew that, and I’d surprised her by going out of my way to distance myself even further. But that hesitation only lasted for a second, and she charged forward.

Hmm. She fights calmly and efficiently, but her movements are predictable. It’s foolish to use the same strategy against me twice. I might need to correct that.

I matched her by dashing forward with all my strength.

“Wha—?”

That flustered Tarte. She held out her lance as she ran to add force to her thrust. Yet, if I could get near enough to her, her attack would be effectively meaningless.

Unfortunately, I still wouldn’t be able to draw close enough to strike with my sword, but I had a different goal in mind.

The tip of her spear and that of my sword collided, and the former broke.

Swords were shorter than spears, but they were more durable. Also, charging in close to Tarte had weakened the force of her attack, which led to my blade breaking her weapon when they collided.

Tarte looked unsure how to respond to this development. I, on the other hand, was prepared. Seizing upon her moment of hesitation, I took a step forward and delivered an uppercut with my left hand. This move was much swifter than pulling back to slash with a sword.

The impact should have rocked her jaw and caused Tarte to lose consciousness. Yet, it felt astonishingly soft.

Impressive.

I laughed. Tarte had bent her neck the moment my hand collided with her chin, weakening the power of the blow.

My attack should have been guaranteed to connect, but Tarte had avoided it on animalistic reflex. It was unbelievable how strong Beastification had made her.

Tarte’s eyes seemed to shine as she bent backward, and before I knew it, I was hunched over in pain from a muted impact. She had driven her knee into my stomach.

“Gah-hah!”

She followed that by striking me with an elbow from above, the force of which caused me to collapse. Tarte straddled me as I lay on the ground and pinned down my shoulders.

“Haah… Haah…” From her position above, she gazed down at me while panting heavily. Her expression resembled a hungry animal that had trapped its prey. Those fox ears that looked so cute before now lent her the countenance of a true carnivore.

“You win, Tarte. I can’t believe you beat me. Can you please get off?”

If Tarte had gone for my throat instead of pinning down my shoulders, she could have killed me. This was her victory. It was the first time I’d ever lost to Tarte in a mock battle.

Evidently, I still had more to learn. I’d been foolishly convinced that my uppercut would decide the fight.

Perhaps I’ve grown a bit complacent. I need to reassess myself, I thought. Allowing yourself to believe that a skirmish was over before confirming your opponent’s death was unacceptable as an assassin.

“Lord Luuugh.”

The match was over, but Tarte still hadn’t released me. On the contrary, she seemed highly excited and increased the pressure on my shoulders.

Initially, I thought her beastly instincts were telling her to keep fighting, but then I realized it was something else. There was no doubt she was acting on impulse, but the look in her eyes didn’t seem combative.

As I pondered that, she tore off my clothes. It was an amazing feat, considering they were defensive equipment woven with thread strengthened by mana.

Tarte leaned forward and started rubbing her entire body against mine. Her fluffy fox tail swayed from side to side, occasionally tickling my thighs. It was pleasant, but her incredible strength kept me pinned.

I had thought that her fox-form Beastification would only bolster her legs, but it must have strengthened her arms, too. So much so that she currently overpowered me.

“Haaaah, Lord Luuuugh.”

Tarte’s body was unbelievably hot, and her scent was causing my head to spin. If this continued, it could affect my behavior.

At last, I understood. The fire in Tarte’s eyes wasn’t a desire to hunt; it was carnal excitement. I was Tarte’s prey, but it was a sexual conquest.

All right, what should I do here?

I looked to the side and saw Dia glaring at me. Unsurprisingly, being assaulted by another girl in front of your girlfriend was not ideal.

Tarte likely wouldn’t be too pleased about her first experience being carried out in broad daylight. Unfortunately, she’d lost all reason, and I didn’t know what she’d do if I resisted. She could beat me until I stopped moving and then take her time doing as she pleased.

I guess I have no choice. I’ll use Beastification, too.

If I did, I’d have the strength necessary to overcome her. There were a few reasons I didn’t like that option, but I couldn’t afford to hold back.

Meanwhile, Tarte had begun to squirm and was trying to move beyond nuzzling. Her chastity was in danger. I needed to hurry.

However…

“Huh? Wh-wh-what am I—? I-I’m sorry! I didn’t intend anything like this! I, um, I…”

As soon as Tarte’s fox ears and tail disappeared, her eyes lost their beastly lust, and her face turned so red it seemed like steam was going to come out of her ears. She covered her face with her hands.

“Uh, first of all, pull those clothes back up,” I instructed.

“Eek! Y-yes, my lord!”

Looking very unladylike as she sat on top of me, Tarte panicked and tried to stand. Her efforts only resulted in her tumbling and exposing something even more shameful.

Yep, she’s back to normal.

She hurriedly straightened herself up and then furiously bowed her head. “I am so sorry. My vision went red, and before I knew it, I was doing that…”

“I know. That’s a flaw of Beastification,” I said.

Obviously, Tarte wouldn’t have attempted something like that in her right state of mind.

“Argh, I’m never going to use this power again.”

“Did you initially hesitate because you had a feeling this would happen?”

I’d thought it was because Dia and I wouldn’t stop raving about how cute she was.

“U-um, the first time I used Beastification, I got this peculiar feeling when I looked at you, my lord, and that’s why I didn’t want to use it…”

“I see. Still, you should become able to repress those instincts with training. You probably don’t remember, but you beat me. Surely it would be a waste if you didn’t master such strength.”

Beastification made Tarte very strong. Her physical abilities increased, and she gained the wild intuition of an animal. It also cleared her of hesitation, which directly improved her combat ability.

Tarte’s usual consideration of others and lack of confidence often caused her to falter, which was a dangerous thing in the thick of a fight. This skill relieved her of that weakness.

“I will try my best. But if I seem like I’m going to do something weird, please stop me,” Tarte implored.

“I promise I will.”

This was a painful lesson for me as well. I needed to remain diligent.

Dia then walked up to us. “You know, Lugh, you didn’t put up much resistance. Did you, by chance, want Tarte to have her way with you? Is that the kind of thing you enjoy? Hmm.”

I thought she would be angry, but judging by her facial expression and body language, it seemed she mainly wanted to tease. Perhaps she was only slightly jealous.

“It would have been dangerous if I had accidentally encouraged her. That’s all.”

“Oh, really? I understand. You don’t have to worry, Lugh. I accept whatever sexual fetish you have,” Dia replied.

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“I truly don’t mind if you’ve taken a liking to Tarte’s fox ears and tail.”

So that’s it. Fox Tarte certainly was cute. So much so that I wanted to use her fluffy tail as a pillow.

Doing so while Tarte was so excited could prove dangerous, however. Who knew what she might try while I slept? I’d have to wait until she could handle her transformation better.

After a week, Dia and Tarte both had a handle on their new abilities. I completed my arrangements for obtaining some appraisal sheets. They were scheduled to arrive in five days.

What’s more…

“So they’ve made their move.”

Something that appeared to be a demon had surfaced in the north, and I’d received an order of dispatch. This was going to be my first job as a Holy Knight.

All my preparation for demon slaying was complete. The only thing that remained was to test it.

Should my spell succeed, it could change everything. Being able to kill demons meant I could save the world without assassinating Epona. If more people became capable of fighting demons, Epona would have less riding on her shoulders, decreasing the chance of her plunging the planet into ruin.

This is going to work. It has to.

Chapter 17 | The Assassin Experiments

Dia, Tarte, and I were off to confront the demon that had appeared.

Horse-drawn carriages are so slow, I thought idly. Maybe next time, I’ll try making some kind of primitive automobile. I should be able to manage that. The poor roads would be a problem, though.

“This is our first job, my lord. I really want it to be a success,” Tarte said.

“I feel the same way. We have to prove ourselves to those in the central government who see me as nothing more than a sacrificial lamb. Remember, if the demon-killing field fails, that means we’ve lost, and you should only concern yourselves with escape.”

The universally accepted rule was that only the hero could kill demons. However, I had produced magic that turned that law on its head. It was our only shot at victory, and if it proved unsuccessful, we’d have to flee.

Of course, I wouldn’t let that be the end of it. I’d return to my research to figure out where I went awry.

“Ah, that reminds me. While I can only maintain it for thirty seconds, I can produce the field, too,” Dia stated.

“Really?” I questioned.

“Hey, why do you doubt me? I’ll show you later.”

Short though it was, it would be incredible if someone other than me could cast the spell necessary to slay demons. Constructing the field required a lot of mana, which drastically decreased my combat ability.

If I could leave activating the field to Dia, I’d be able to stay in the battle. Assassination might even be possible.

“That’s amazing. I had no chance of using it,” Tarte responded.

“You’re better with martial fighting. We both have different specialties. Being able to do everything as Lugh can isn’t normal. Truthfully, I want to fight on the frontlines like you, Tarte, but I’m stuck with these arms no matter how many push-ups I do.” Dia flexed her arms. They were skinny and soft. She trained, but her physical makeup made it difficult for her to build muscle. “Also, I did some more research into the demon-killing formula, and I feel like I can send the field flying.”

“Flying?” I asked.

Dia mimed a gun with her hands and made a bang noise. Adorable.

“Yeah, the way we constructed the spell, the field forms around the caster. But we could compress it so it could be propelled like a bullet. I can reconfigure the formula to make that happen. That would reduce the field’s effect time, though. It would likely only last about two seconds for me. You might be able to keep it potent for ten, Lugh.”

I couldn’t even begin to imagine how she would revise the equation to achieve such a thing. Yet if Dia said she could, then I trusted her.

The reduction of effect time was because instead of using yourself as the origin for the spell, you’d be firing it as a projectile, which relied on instantaneous mana discharge.

“That sounds good. Can you try developing it for me? There could be many uses for that. It would be great if you could finish it before we arrive.”

“I’ll do what I can, but don’t get your hopes up,” Dia responded. Then she spread out some documents and began to work on some calculations.

Despite her telling me not to, I couldn’t help but feel excited. I devoted the time we had until arrival to pondering a way to slay a demon in two seconds.

Assassination would have the highest chance of success. The trouble was the lack of information on the target. While the government had provided some documents, they were not especially helpful. I couldn’t form a plan of attack with this information alone. There was nothing I could do but study what was available and expect to learn on the fly.

The journey took several days, but we finally arrived at our destination—a town that bordered a neighboring domain. For a provincial settlement, it was large. It was a prosperous center for trade, as well as a popular tourist destination. Many beautiful stone buildings should have lined the street. However…

“This place looks like a jungle,” Dia commented.

“I don’t see a single person,” Tarte added.

The structures were all overgrown with ivy, and the streets had been flooded with trees. Curiously, there didn’t seem to be any animal life.

The three of us stood at the entrance to the town, beholding this inauspicious sight.

I looked over the documents again. Apparently, there had initially only been one tree, and it then spread incredibly quickly and engulfed the whole town.

Those who had fled early on survived, but there was no word from anyone who’d remained. An armed contingent was sent into the settlement to investigate, yet not a single one of them returned.

After that, an attempt was made to clear away the parasitic plants by burning them with fire. That also went poorly. Only the most intense heat burned the trees. Even if they did catch fire, they quickly regenerated any damage. The military operation failed, and not a single soldier involved survived. The report stated the vegetation ate them.

It was then decided that this had to be the work of a demon, and I was sent to deal with things.

“Hey, Lugh. Are we entering the town? If these trees actually ate people, then we’ll have enemies all around us,” said Dia.

“There’s something I need to do before we move in. Get behind me, you two.”

When I accepted this job, I’d made sure to confirm one thing: whether I needed to save those swallowed by the trees. The government responded that even if there were survivors, rescuing them was a hopeless endeavor. Thus, I could use whatever method I wished.

Of course, I wanted to help the trapped civilians, but I didn’t understand what this forest was, and running headlong into it seemed like a bad idea. For that reason, I needed to perform some experiments from a safe distance.

“You can see it, right, Dia?” I asked. “These plants are all one entity.”

“Yeah. They have mana, and they’re connected to an unnatural degree. The only thing that explains it is this being one creature.”

“I’m thinking the same thing. Let’s do some poking. Keep an eye on their mana for me.”

My first experiment was to toss some warm meat into the town-turned-forest. There was no response. Next, I sent in a domestic pig I’d purchased on the way here.

“SQUEEEEEEEE!”

When it got close enough to a tree, vines extended from someplace unseen and ensnared the animal. Several branches stabbed into the pig, and it began to shrivel up until only skin and bones remained.

“That’s a nasty way to go, but it explains how the people disappeared,” I remarked.

“A carnivorous tree… If they’re all over the town, then that means everyone has already been eaten,” Tarte realized with a gasp. She brought a hand to her mouth.

As Tarte said, with vegetation covering the entire settlement, there couldn’t be any survivors. That meant I could go ahead with my next test without concern.

“See anything, Dia?” I questioned. She’d been watching closely, as I’d requested, making use of her Tuatha Dé eyes.

“There was a swell of mana when the pig was consumed. Nutrients are being converted directly into power.”

In short, these trees had been released into the city by someone who wanted to stockpile magical energy.

“Okay, my first experiment was a success. I learned two things. On to the next one.”

I tossed a barrel full of oil into town. It rolled until it bumped into a bough in the middle of the road. There was no response.

I aimed at the container and shot a fire arrow at it. It burst, releasing the oil inside, which then ignited. This particular substance was even more flammable than the typical variety, capable of producing large pillars of flame.

Like with the pig, branches extended toward the pillar of fire. It was as if they wanted to be torched.

“I knew they had a strong regenerative ability, but this is crazy,” I commented.

“It’s still just the typical sort of restoration, though. This isn’t the absurd ability demons have to reconstitute themselves that you described, Lugh. I see a lot of mana being used up, so these things aren’t immortal,” Dia replied.

The tips of the branches regrew even as they were smoldering. When the flames finally disappeared, the trees looked as if nothing had happened.

“That’s a significant discovery. Now to truly scorch these things,” I declared.

I pulled out a Fahr Stone from my pouch. Like the pig and barrel of oil, I’d prepared this for today.

I usually filled Fahr Stones with a set ratio of fire, wind, and earth mana. That way, I could use a large amount of air to increase the explosive force of the flames and scatter fragments of iron upon impact, creating potent bombs.

This Fahr Stone, however, only housed fire and wind mana. I’d prioritized combustion over explosive capability. It could produce an inferno far beyond what oil was capable of, even my modified variety. It was filled with the mana of three hundred ordinary mages, after all.

It only took a bit more magical energy to push the Fahr Stone to its critical point, and then it began to crack. I hurled it into the forest, and a moment later, it released all that stored power.

The crimson flames spread instantly and consumed an entire section of the settlement. The view was like hell itself.

“It’s scary but so pretty,” said Tarte, staring at the flames in a daze.

When the blaze subsided, not even ashes remained of the trees they consumed. The buildings survived because they were made of stone, though they were now adorned with black scorch marks of the vines that had clung to them.

“So the vegetation isn’t part of the demon itself,” I said.

“Yeah, they were probably produced by some kind of ability,” added Dia.

Initially, I couldn’t be sure if the strange greenery was the demon. That turned out not to be the case, though. This forest was nothing but a monster possessed of a powerful regenerative factor. Its nature allowed it to grow through grafting, which explained why the same mana flowed through all the plants.

This was both good and bad news. Since this greenery wasn’t the demon, it would be far easier to remove it. Unfortunately, that also meant we’d have to search this large town to find the demon.

“Dia, Tarte, we’re entering the town. We’re going to search for the target,” I declared.

“Yes, my lord! But isn’t it dangerous?”

“Yeah, you burned quite a large area, but the town is still full of those man-eating trees!”

“Stay close to me, and you’ll both be fine.”

I strode forward fearlessly while Dia and Tarte followed behind, looking uneasy. Even when we passed the area I’d incinerated, we weren’t attacked. The trees didn’t so much as flinch.

“My lord, why aren’t they attacking us?” Tarte asked.

“You’ve been using a spell. Does it have something to do with that?” Dia questioned.

“Yes. Remember the experiment I did before we entered the town? Tossing a simple piece of meat toward the trees didn’t elicit a reaction. But they did respond to the pig. The trees don’t have eyes, so they can’t locate prey visually. That leaves vibration, sound, heat, and breathing as the things they could respond to. They didn’t notice the meat when it was dropped near them, so we can eliminate vibration and sound. I made sure to warm it, too, and the plants didn’t respond to that, either. That only leaves breathing. More specifically, what they sense is the carbon dioxide we exhale.”

The purpose of my first experiment had been to test how the vegetation sought out food. The answer was the CO_2 that animals emitted. My theory was substantiated when the tree branches had reached out toward the pillar of fire.

“So you’re removing the air around us and sending it up into the sky,” Dia deduced.

“That’s right. This way, we can move unnoticed.”

I was diluting our breath and blowing it upward. My mana recovery outpaced this spell, so maintaining it wasn’t an issue. Having to fend off attacks from every direction while searching for the demon would have left us exhausted by the time we finally found our opponent.

There was also a possibility that the plants shared information with the demon. If we wanted the upper hand, we couldn’t afford to fight them.

We had to find our enemy before it located us. Fortunately, it seemed like the trump card I’d prepared was going to be very effective.

Chapter 18 | The Assassin Smokes Out the Enemy

We continued through the town, searching for the demon. It, too, was likely scouring the area for the people who’d burned its carnivorous forest.

To remain undetected, I was using a wind spell to send the carbon dioxide we exhaled into the sky, which kept the plants from noticing us. The demon likely shared the monsters’ senses, so it was probably usually aware of everything happening in this settlement.

This gave us the upper hand. Regular humans wouldn’t have been able to evade being attacked by the trees. Hopefully, this demon was convinced we weren’t near the vegetation.

Creating a false sense of security was common for assassination work. If a camera, guards, or an attack dog gave a target enough peace of mind that they felt safe, it only made the killer’s job that much easier.

“Lord Lugh, how are we going to find the demon?” Tarte asked.

“I’m probing the entire town using a wind spell. If I prove unable to find it, then I’ll smoke it out using something a little less elegant.”

The three of us continued to weave around the plants, remaining vigilant of our surroundings as we explored the town. As we went along, I dropped some things here and there.

It took about two hours to pace around the entire settlement. Whether fortunate or not, we didn’t so much as catch a glimpse of a demon.

“We’re back to where we started. Guess that means it’s time for the dirtier method,” I stated.

“Does it have something to do with those things you kept dropping?” Dia asked.

“Yes. Those are special Fahr Stones.”

I’d scattered them throughout the town as we walked around it. The twenty-two pieces were all specialized for combustion, and I’d positioned them as effectively as possible.

Tarte turned to me with her head cocked to one side. “Um, Lord Lugh. Fahr Stones only blow up if you fill them with mana to their critical point, so just leaving them on the ground wouldn’t do anything, right?”

“Typically, yes. These ones are ready for detonation, however. I cast a spell on them that Dia and I developed. It causes the stones to absorb natural mana in the atmosphere. By adjusting the strength of that intake, I control when they reach their maximum capacity. Functionally, they are time bombs. Those twenty-two Fahr Stones are set to explode simultaneously.”

“But every one of them has incredible power. How bad is it going to be if that many go off at the same time?” Tarte asked.

“It will burn the entire town to the ground. That’s my plan.”

Had there been any survivors, I wouldn’t have been able to do this. Yet, given how overrun the settlement was, there was no way anyone was still alive. I’d also received permission from the government to take whatever measures I needed to kill the demon. Razing an entire town was fine.

“Lugh, what are you doing this for? Killing demons is pointless if you don’t use Demonkiller. Those tree monsters are definitely irritating and dangerous, but this feels like a waste of Fahr Stones,” Dia said.

“It’s for harassment. You saw how those plant monsters eat people, convert them into mana, and store it. The demon seized the entire town because it needs a large amount of magical power for something. It’s also possible its goal is simply to produce more tree monsters and build up an army. The demon won’t take kindly to all its hard work being destroyed. Since we couldn’t find it, I’m going to force it out by pissing it off.”

As I explained, the three of us ventured back out beyond the limits of the settlement. We’d perish if we were caught in the blast. What’s more, it’d be easier to spot the demon from a distant point.

I dug a relatively deep makeshift trench dozens of meters from the nearest carnivorous tree, and we hid within it. Then I pulled out a special telescope that enabled me to see the town even from inside the ditch.

“By my calculation, it will start in one minute,” I stated.

While there was some room for error depending on the thickness of the natural ambient mana, the most I’d be off was ten seconds. The Fahr Stones were likely already beginning to crack.

I was destroying an entire town simply to eradicate the army of vegetation and store of mana the demon had built up. Even the most mild-mannered creature in the world would get angry at such a development. A furious target was less likely to make intelligent decisions, so enraging your opponent gave you the upper hand.

“Here we go.”

Despite our distance, I could feel the overwhelming and powerful rise in mana.

“Do not lift your heads out of this trench. I’ve placed a wind barrier over it to keep out the heat and fire, but if you poke beyond it even slightly, you will die,” I cautioned.

Even disregarding the flames, this was liable to be a massive explosion, depleting all the oxygen in the area. One breath of that kind of air would spell our demise.

“Y-yes, my lord.”

“Got it.”

Tarte clung to me out of fear. Upon seeing that, Dia did the same.

A few seconds later, the world became a torrent of swirling crimson. Fire coursed over the trench like water.

An explosion wrought from twenty-two Fahr Stones, the mana of six thousand and six hundred regular mages, painted the world itself red.

The flames spared nothing, consuming as they grew, causing everything in their wake to vanish as if it never existed in the first place.

I’d filled the Fahr Stones with wind mana to supply oxygen, but even that was burned up in an instant. The next moment, the lack of air in the town created a vacuum with waves of such overwhelming force that even the stone buildings crumbled.

It was like a scene out of a nightmare. We would have been blasted away if we hadn’t been in the ditch.

Once it all ended, I took a peek outside using my telescope. The girls both still seemed scared of poking their heads out.

“The town is gone,” I said.

“…I’ve never heard of a single mage doing anything like this. You didn’t just destroy an entire town; you made it disappear completely,” Dia marveled.

An entire town had been wiped off the map entirely. All that remained now was vacant land. This was what could be accomplished with the efficient use of twenty-two Fahr Stones.

“So, Lugh. If you felt like it, could you do the same thing to the royal capital?” asked Dia.

“Yes. All I would have to do is sneak into the capital, place Fahr Stones in the proper locations, and escape before they blew up. It wouldn’t even be hard. So don’t tell anyone I am capable of this. I’ll be considered a dangerous person.”

I intended to pin this devastation on the demon. The government did tell me I could do whatever I wanted, but I couldn’t be sure how they’d react to knowing I had caused this.

“Yeah, you’d probably be scarier than a demon to those in charge. It’s good there was no lookout assigned this time,” Dia remarked.

“If there had been, I would have used a different method.”

From a politician’s perspective, a human who could make an entire town disappear in a matter of hours was only to be feared. So long as the threat of demons remained, I’d be allowed to live, but once they were gone, those in control would want me dead. Should I ever lose my mind, get bought out by a foreign power, or desire to rule the kingdom myself, then Alvan was finished.

Obviously, I wasn’t planning on destroying the country, but the mere fact that I could was dangerous. Removing a threat like me before anything happened was just proactive thinking.

The same could be said of Epona once she killed the Demon King, too. If I really wanted to save the world without killing her, then I had to find a way to remove her power. I had discovered a method that allowed other people to kill demons, so it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.

“I wonder if the demon is still alive,” mused Dia.

“It probably did die, but it will revive. All right, let’s see how the demon reacts. I’m not sure what to do if it stays in hiding. Perhaps it will go on to try the same thing with the trees in another town. If so, we’ll need to keep blowing them up until it loses patience. I’d prefer not to do that, though.”

Carefully, I sneaked a glance at things outside the ditch, looking for movement in what used to be the settlement. The game now was finding the enemy before it discovered us. Patience was key.

I only had to wait two or three minutes.

Another blast roared from the center of the former town. Even as far away as we were, Dia, Tarte, and I felt the tremor.

“GAAAAAAAHHHHH, HUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAANS! YOU DESTROYED IT! YOU DESTROYED THE FOREST I WORKED SO HARD ONNNNNNNN! I ONLY NEEDED A LITTLE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE! I’LL KILL YOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!”

The demon was furious, screaming and thrashing about.

He was humanoid in shape but sported a black horn and green carapace reminiscent of a rhinoceros beetle. The massive and sharp carapace on the upper half of his body made him look incredibly aggressive.

I’d expected the demon to resemble a plant because of his connection to the carnivorous forest, but he looked more like a cross between a man and an insect.

He possessed massive defense, strength, and speed. Fighting this creature was going to be annoying.

However, I’d won the first battle already. I found him, and he still had no idea where we were. That made things simpler—all we had to do was kill him.

“Dia, Tarte. On my signal, approach the demon from the front. I’m going to circle around him,” I instructed.

“So we’re going with that plan.”

“I will protect Lady Dia!”

Dia would spread the field needed to kill the demon while Tarte protected her. I was to deliver the killing blow from out of sight. Working as a team gave us the best chance of success.

This was going to be the demon-killing field’s first real test. That went for the spell I was going to use to slay him, too. Still, I wasn’t worried at all. There was no one the three of us couldn’t assassinate. That was how deeply I trusted Tarte and Dia.

Chapter 19 | The Assassin Spectates

“I only needed a little more.” I repeated in my mind what the beetle demon had screamed. Whatever he sought required consuming an entire town’s worth of people.

No matter what he’d been scheming, it couldn’t have been good for humanity. Simply foiling his plot was already a win.

His appearance also confirmed that he was indeed a demon. During the explosion, he had been in the town, yet he didn’t have so much as a scratch on him now. No monster, even one with a healing ability, could have survived that.

“Dia, Tarte, we’ll use this opportunity to kill him for good.”

“Yes, my lord!”

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

Our opponent had to have been aware that someone had infiltrated the town. The fact that he’d remained in hiding spoke of a more cautious creature. That had gone out the window in his rage, though. If we were going to assassinate him, it had to be now.

Dia and Tarte charged at the demon from the front. Meanwhile, I concealed my presence and sneaked around to a flank. I’d picked out a number of spots beforehand as suitable for sniping and was heading toward one. My intention was to kill the demon with a special attack I’d been saving.

The incantation for the formula was going to take time, however. I wasn’t able to use it in combat, even with Quick Chant. Thus, my only option was to assassinate the demon from the shadows.

Dia, Tarte, I’m counting on you.

I had to believe in their strength and focus on my job.

Dia and Tarte ran forward, their hearts full of fear.

Thanks to the Tuatha Dé eyes that Lugh had given them, they could both see mana and were aware of the tremendous power dwelling within the beetle demon.

Challenging such a creature was paramount to suicide. To make matters worse, he was incensed.

“Tarte, you understand what’s going to happen, right? No matter what injuries you inflict, he will heal. What we need to do is restrict his movement and buy time,” said Dia.

“Yes, I will keep him still and allow you to hit him with Demonkiller,” replied the maid.

“Perfect. I can only use the spell twice, so we can’t afford to screw up.”

The increase in power Dia had received from My Loyal Knights was what made her capable of using Demonkiller. Fortunately, she’d also completed work on the version that enabled the field to be shot as a projectile.

However, it still consumed an absurd amount of mana. Although Dia’s mana capacity was steadily increasing thanks to Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth, the best she could muster was two uses of the spell. Only being allowed one miss was a lot of pressure.

“YOU FILTHY HUMAAAAAAAANS!” cried the beetle demon when he caught sight of the two girls approaching. His roar became a shock wave that knocked Dia and Tarte off the ground. When they landed, Tarte took the lead, and Dia began a composite incantation using Multi-Chant.

It was Cannon Strike, a spell she’d previously been incapable of using.

She formed a giant gun and fired a tungsten bullet from it. This attack had the highest piercing power of any magic Dia was capable of.

The shot was aimed at the demon’s right thigh, a point she would not have gone for had she intended to kill the creature. It was the right spot to target for limiting his movements, though.

True to her aim, the projectile pierced the beetle demon’s leg. Cannon Strike was powerful enough to penetrate a steel plate, and it managed to break through the demon’s carapace and wedge halfway into his limb.

That meant the creature’s shell was harder than steel. Dia’s and Tarte’s faces twitched a little.

“THAT HURRRRRRT, YOU BIIIIIIIIIITCH!”

Without holding anything, the demon lifted his arms and brought them down as though throwing something. A piece of his carapace came flying at Dia faster than the speed of sound.

Tarte used her spear, the tip of which was enveloped by wind, to strike the bit of shell and deflect it. It landed behind them with a thunderous sound.

If Tarte had blocked that head-on, she undoubtedly would have lost her hands. An ordinary person would not have even been able to react in time. Tarte, however, had improved her vision by pouring mana into her Tuatha Dé eyes.

“Once I find an opening, please use Demonkiller as fast as you can. I don’t think I will last very long.”

“Okay, I won’t make you wait.”

The two of them nodded at each other.

Tarte put a syringe to her neck and injected the drug Lugh had created to remove the limiter on his brain temporarily. The chemical sharpened her senses and raised her mana discharge for a short time, but it would render her unable to continue fighting after only ten minutes. Despite that, Tarte judged that the demon would crush her immediately if she didn’t use it. And that was the correct choice.

Her instantaneous mana discharge increased exponentially, and then she used Beastification, sprouting fox ears and a tail.

“I’ll rip Lord Lugh’s enemy apart!” she proclaimed, a savage smile twisting her face.

When Tarte used Beastification, her personality grew violent. During training, she’d learned a method to surrender herself to it rather than try to repress it.

Tarte let her instincts take over and charged. The beetle demon thrust an arm forward and shot needles out of it to meet her attack. The maneuver caught her off guard, but her highly sharp senses allowed her just barely to twist her neck and dodge it. She then stabbed her spear at the demon, but her strike bounced lightly off his carapace.

“Oh, was that supposed to hurt?” the demon mocked.

“…Goddamn bug.”

Without coming to a stop, Tarte circled around behind him, hoping to deliver a blow to his back. Unfortunately, the beetle demon easily evaded, moving a fair distance away. Tarte laid on the pressure with many swift attacks but couldn’t manage even a scrape.

The demon’s body was extremely tough, and his joints had a special coating that the tip of her spear couldn’t cut through. The creature’s shell was sturdy enough to stop a Cannon Strike shot from tearing clean through. No matter how much Tarte raised her physical strength, she had no chance of puncturing it with a lance. Her speed and rapid flurry of blows still held the demon in check, however.

“You’re so slow, you’re going to make me yawn, you piece of shit!”

Tarte clearly possessed superior speed. The beetle demon couldn’t keep up at all, and the bullet wedged in his leg certainly didn’t help. It getting stuck there turned out to be more helpful than if it had pierced through entirely.

This was not to suggest that Tarte had the upper hand—she couldn’t land a meaningful blow, after all. To make matters worse, her breath was becoming ragged. She needed to keep moving at this speed to avoid the demon’s attacks, but maintaining that pace was draining. If either her legs or her Beastification gave out, she would die.

Unless something changed, the beetle demon would win. He remained unaware of this, however.

“SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! YOU’RE SO ANNOYING!”

He struck the ground with a fist, sending countless stones flying in all directions. Tarte moved to dodge, but one struck her stomach, and she fell to her knees. The direct hit had disrupted her meticulously controlled breathing.

The beetle demon walked up to Tarte and raised a fist. “DIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!” His arm rocketed downward. There should have been no escape, but the corners of Tarte’s mouth curled upward into a grin.

Thanks to her mana-increased defense and the impact-resistant undergarments Lugh had made, she hadn’t taken much damage from the blow to her stomach. It was an act.

Her ploy was meant to give her a moment’s rest while also buying her time for an incantation. You couldn’t cast a spell and strengthen yourself with mana simultaneously. For that reason, Tarte had needed to make the demon think she couldn’t move to gain the time she required.

Tarte completed her spell and enveloped herself in electricity. She and the beetle demon then passed each other by. The girl now moved at the speed of lightning.

“AGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA!”

While Tarte’s attacks had done nothing to the demon before, this one made him writhe in agony and collapse.

Her spear still wasn’t able to pierce his carapace, but electricity passed through it and reached the demon’s insides. The high-voltage current flowed through the beetle demon’s body and rendered him immobile.

That was when Tarte hit her limit. Her fox ears and tail disappeared, and she fell to her knees. Pushing her body so excessively with the drug had caused her strength to wane quicker than normal.

“Lady Dia!” Tarte called out, imploring the other girl to act.

This was the only chance Tarte was able to give Dia. She had nothing left in the tank, and the same trick wouldn’t work again. Dia had to get this right.

“Demonkiller!”

Dia formed a gun with her hands and fired a blast of mana. Even for her, the spell should have taken longer to prepare. This was because she’d been calmly monitoring Tarte’s battle. Confident that Tarte would give her an opening, Dia had started her incantation early.

Had she started the recitation after Tarte had stunned the demon, or if she’d tried to help out by using some different magic, she wouldn’t have completed Demonkiller in time. Dia’s belief in Tarte had enabled her to focus on her job and seize this opportunity.

Dia’s blast of magical power landed. A spherical field emerged upon impact, enveloping the demon.

This was Demonkiller, a spell that nullified the absurd regenerative power demons possessed.

Dia was nervous because this was their first time using it in battle. Yet the stunned look on the beetle demon’s face told her it must have been working to some extent.

In her excitement, she nearly glanced toward Lugh, but she restrained herself. No matter how small the possibility, she didn’t want to increase the odds of the beetle demon noticing his presence. Tarte was refraining, too, so Dia had to stay strong.

The three of them were a team, and cooperation wasn’t born from worrying about each other, but from each person performing their job to perfection. That was a pet saying of Lugh’s, and Dia and Tarte believed it.

All Dia could do now was wait.

Tarte had done well creating the opportunity needed, and Dia had seized upon it and successfully cast the projectile version of Demonkiller. Undoubtedly, Lugh would fulfill his duty and assassinate the demon. There was no doubting it.

After all, if Lugh didn’t kill the beetle demon within a few seconds, she and Tarte would be in mortal danger. Dia smiled.

Chapter 20 | The Assassin Takes Aim

I started my incantation as soon as I was sure Tarte would be able to hit the demon with her lightning attack, and I was now nearing completion.

Dia, Tarte, you two did great.

That beetle demon was unbelievably strong. If Dia and Tarte had still only been as powerful as the vice-commander of the Royal Order I’d fought at the academy, they would’ve been ground to dust in less than a minute. But thankfully, they’d grown beyond that level and had successfully rendered the demon immobile. I doubted anyone else could have managed it.

Dia and Tarte had played their parts expertly, and that was precisely why I needed to do the same.

I poured mana into my Tuatha Dé eyes and looked at the beetle demon. I could see a great stream of mana flowing within him. There was also an energy separate from his mana—the force that made demons immortal. It was stored within a red jewel—the demon’s core—that resided in the creature’s heart.

Usually, the red jewel was immaterial. However, Demonkiller forced it to become solid matter.

I’d stationed myself about two hundred meters away. The farther away you were from your target, the less precise the attack would be, the longer it took to connect, and the less force it had.

All of that was irrelevant, though. The distance was no problem for the new spell I’d created. This situation called for a ranged attack from far enough away that I wouldn’t be noticed.

My new magic was the natural evolution of Gun Strike. I’d wanted a spell that would achieve extreme accuracy and force. Until now, I’d counted on Gungnir as my ace in the hole, but it was too unreliable. Not only did it take a while to land, but its vast area of effect limited the situations it could be used in, and aiming it wasn’t easy. This new attack overcame all of those hindrances.

Initially, I’d tried creating something superior to Cannon Strike. Unfortunately, even when I’d used the sturdiest alloy I could produce and strengthened the coating with mana, there was a limit on how strong of an explosion the barrel could withstand. It wasn’t enough to be the decisive weapon I needed.

I eventually found the answer after electing to use a method other than combustion to accelerate and fire a projectile.

The name of this new spell was…

“Railgun.”

I’d fixed a long gun as tall as I was to the ground. I lay down and gently slid my hands over it, loading a bullet. These rounds were made out of an alloy designed explicitly for Railgun. They were the size of rifle ammunition, but each was close to one kilogram in weight.

The lengthy barrel was fixed to a stand long enough to be deserving of the moniker Railgun. The name also reflected how the weapon worked.

There were two bars made out of a special material within the armament, and an electric current began to flow once a bullet was placed between them. This created a magnetic field that was the propulsive force.

The principle behind it wasn’t all that difficult, but it was a very sophisticated mechanism. I couldn’t magically produce the pieces needed on the fly, so I had to keep them in my Leather Crane Bag. That was one crutch of this attack.

I inserted Fahr Stones into the long gun and finally finished the incantation. Railgun was composite magic that combined three different spells using Multi-Chant. The Fahr Stones were filled with colorless mana.

They then erupted, and the first spell converted the colorless mana that flowed out of them into electricity. Tarte’s lightning spell had come about as an offshoot of my design on this. A strong current pulsed through the weapon.

I activated the second spell at nearly the same time. This one quickly cooled the temperature of the barrel, lowering it to almost absolute zero. I did this to reduce the gun’s electrical resistance. Strong currents created heat, which distorted the mechanism and could lead to damage.

With the temperature near absolute zero, that wasn’t an issue, though. In other words, the cooling magic raised force, increased precision, and removed the problems of resistance.

Finally, I set off the last spell. Railgun loosed projectiles at such speed that they’d burn up instantly if nothing protected them. Windbreak was the answer to that issue, ensuring my shots would reach their target.

I fired the bullet.

Not even my Tuatha Dé eyes could follow it. A hole was instantly torn in the beetle demon’s chest.

A split second later, the aftershock tore the creature’s entire body to shreds. The shot landed far in the distance and formed a giant crater in the ground.

“Exact and powerful, just as I intended. This will be very useful,” I said with a satisfied nod. There was no magic better suited to sniping than this.

When I’d tested Railgun on the deserted island, its initial velocity when fired at full strength had been 5.9 kilometers per second, or seventeen times the speed of sound. The force was 17.4 megajoules.

This superweapon with rifle-sized rounds packed twice as much strength as a tank cannon. Concentrating all of that power into one point boosted the piercing power significantly. With so much kinetic energy contained in an object the size of a bullet, all external elements could be ignored. All you had to account for was calculation error.

The projectile also made impact astonishingly swiftly. It covered two hundred meters in 0.03 seconds, which was fantastic for accuracy. If a shot moved quickly, there was less time for gravity and other outside factors to interfere.

Undoubtedly, Railgun’s greatest strength was its precision. It was a dream weapon that would reliably strike where you aimed. I couldn’t think of any magic more suited to assassination than this. Although inferior to Gungnir in terms of raw strength, it had many uses.

If I had to think of a drawback, converting the mana from the Fahr Stones into electricity and casting the other two spells demanded all the magical power I could release, and because the magic was difficult to control, I had to devote my full attention to it, leaving me defenseless.

Another weakness was that it couldn’t be used without Multi-Chant. Depending on a skill I’d received from My Loyal Knights wasn’t ideal.

Even then, being able to shoot with massive force from hundreds of kilometers away was appealing.

I loaded another bullet. There was no way I’d failed to pierce the demon’s core. However, if Demonkiller turned out to be flawed, or if my theory about the jewel being the demon’s true essence was wrong, then he would recover. So, to play it safe, I wanted to hit him one more time to give Dia and Tarte a chance to escape.

I watched for any signs that the beetle demon was reforming. I held that position for five minutes.

“Guess he’s really dead.”

A sigh of relief slipped from between my lips. The Demonkiller spell Dia and I had created worked perfectly, and my theory was now proven fact.

Someone besides the hero could kill a demon. It was an inspiring revelation and would play a part in alleviating Epona’s burden. This lowered the chances of her turning against humanity.

I got up and started to pack the components of Railgun into my Leather Crane Bag when I quickly stopped, jumped back, and drew a knife.

“Oh my, you noticed me?”

A single woman with snakelike eyes emerged from the woods behind me. She had dark indigo skin and black hair. Her outfit revealed much of her voluptuous body.

From the moment I saw her, I was confident she wasn’t human. No person could have so much mana. She had to be a demon.

This was bad. I was alone, and I couldn’t use Demonkiller and fight at the same time. Engaging here wasn’t an option. I planned to immobilize the woman and then join up with Dia and Tarte. Once we were together, we’d figure out a way to kill her.

“Please be at ease. I don’t feel like fighting. I only wish to thank you for slaying that nuisance, Gurt,” she stated with a gentle smile.

Despite her expression, it was clear she wasn’t going to give me a chance to flee.

“Is Gurt the name of that beetle?”

In most cases, talking with your enemy is a foolish thing to do, but I saw no opportunities to attack. Plus, if your opponent happened to be immortal, chatting was an effective way to buy some extra time.

I could even glean some information from her with a bit of luck. We’d only exchanged a few words, but I was positive this demon knew things I didn’t.

“Sure is. By the way, I’m… No, I’ll give you my name after we build a deeper relationship. Until then, you can call me Snake. I came here to observe the enemy. I never thought I’d see the day Gurt died. You’ve done us quite the favor, killing him before he got what he wanted.”

“You called him your enemy. Are demons warring with each other?” I questioned.

“It’s less a battle and more of a competition.”

Now I had even more of a reason to kill Snake. A contest between demons meant they had the ability to communicate with each other and form social groups. There was a risk she could tell others of her kind about Railgun and my other techniques.

I also couldn’t ignore the fact that she had some connection to snakes, and I’d recently been attacked by a large serpent monster.

“A competition? For what purpose?”

“That’s a secret. Oh dear, I thought you were the hero, but you’re just a human, aren’t you? Wow, your ilk can kill us now? Have the rules changed? Or are you an exception?”

“Who can say?”

Yet again, she mentioned something that troubled me. What were these rules she referred to?

If humans not being able to kill demons was a tenet of some sort, then I had to assume someone set that in place. Perhaps that was how demons had become immortal, too.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. How about we make a deal? I won’t tell the others how Gurt perished, and I’ll keep quiet about there being a human who can kill demons. In return, can you overlook my presence here?”

She immediately understood not only that I felt I needed to take her out, but also the reason why. I didn’t have much of a chance of beating Snake in battle right now, and the terms she offered weren’t disagreeable. Yet I had no proof I could trust her.

“Aren’t those terms a little convenient for you? You don’t want to kill me because I’ll dispose of your rivals in this competition. Of course you’ll keep me a secret. I want more out of this. Specifically, information. Tell me what other kinds of demons there are—names, forms, weaknesses, and the locations of their bases.”

The purpose of my line of questioning was twofold. It served to trick her into revealing things while also probing for what I could. If I was right about her motivation, then this demon was trustworthy.

“You’re cleverer than I gave you credit for. Heroes are always such mindless brutes, so I thought humans would be the same.”

“You’re talking about heroes as if they’re not human.”

“What are you saying? There’s no way the hero could be human,” Snake replied with a snicker.

What drove her to say such a thing? It didn’t seem like she was talking metaphorically about Epona’s overwhelming strength. There was something more.

“So, your answer?” I pressed.

“Allow me to ask one more thing first. Answer, and I’ll tell you what you wish to know. Was Gurt the first demon you’ve killed? Before the beetle, did you slay a pig?”

A pig? That sounds like General Orc, the demon that attacked the academy.

“I tried to kill him, but couldn’t. I did contribute to his demise, though.”

Revealing that was a necessary investment. Snake’s mouth curled into a cruel smile.

“Oh, really? I knew it. Well then, we have ourselves a bargain. I promise I’ll give you the appropriate information at the right time… I’m turning around, so if you want to attack me, go ahead. But you’d better steel yourself if you do so. I’ll have a delightful time with both you and those adorable girls you’re so worried about.”

“I wasn’t planning anything like that.”

I was concerned for Dia and Tarte, but I wasn’t foolish enough to show weakness.

“So you say, but I can tell otherwise. You three clearly love one another. You’re so cute that I just want to eat you up.”

I watched Snake walk off. There was a lot she offered, and not all of it was related to demons. She clearly understood many things I didn’t.

Once Snake was out of sight, I used a probing spell to check if there were any enemies nearby, then relaxed.

“I don’t appreciate being made to participate in a game where I don’t even understand the rules.”

For a while now, I’d been pondering the idea that I knew too little about this world. I didn’t even have a clear understanding of what demons and heroes truly were.

I needed a plan, which in turn demanded a better grasp of the situation. My hope was that Snake could provide me with the same perspective as those who fancied themselves players in this game.

Unfortunately, it was evident that she concealed a lot from me. I had to be cautious around her. Although she acted like she had no idea of my identity, I was sure she’d looked into me.

One thing I was confident of was that the serpent that had attacked on the way back from Milteu was her spawn. Snake’s mana resembled that monster’s own.

Snake was manipulating nobles into attacking me; she had to know who I was. I’d chosen to keep that quiet, however, as it would’ve only interfered in our negotiations.

“I wonder how this will all play out.”

Regardless, I needed to meet up with Dia and Tarte. They’d both worked very hard, and I had to compliment them on a job well done.

Above all, I wanted to hug them.

Chapter 21 | The Assassin Gives Praise

Now that Snake was gone, I hurried to reunite with Dia and Tarte. Naturally, they rushed over as soon as they caught sight of me.

“Your spell was amazing, Lord Lugh! It was like a beam of light.”

“Man, it’s annoying that I can’t use it even though I helped develop it.”

Tarte’s eyes shone with admiration, while Dia looked miffed.

Developing Railgun had been a trying process because of the need to cast three spells at once. Dia had worked very hard to make sure everything was just right.

I’d already had the idea for Railgun before I’d received Multi-Chant from My Loyal Knights. Originally, it had used three mages.

Dia would have used fire magic to control the temperature and lower it to absolute zero. Tarte would use wind magic to convert mana into electricity. I would be in charge of reducing air resistance and firing the gun. If the three of us worked together, we could use Railgun without Multi-Chant.

Our practice had led to Tarte using her Electric Shock spell. If I ever lost the powers Epona gave me, we’d have to go back to activating Railgun the old way.

“You’ll be able to use it eventually, Dia. Your mana capacity is growing, right?”

“I’m working hard on it every day, but it’s frustrating how slowly it increases.”

“Well, I got to this point by working at it since I was two years old. It’s just something you need to keep at.”

Dia was superior to me when it came to her mana control and knowledge of magic formulas. Unfortunately, her mana capacity was too low to use the three spells required for Railgun simultaneously.

“I do understand that, but it doesn’t make me feel any better,” she grumbled.

“Even if you can’t use Railgun, you do have that other option,” I reminded.

“That’s true, but it’s not much better than Cannon Strike.”

I was referring to a scaled-down version of Railgun made for Dia. It used Fahr Stones crushed into a powder, reducing the amount of mana needed for conversion. The result was a versatile spell that Dia could use.

While she was correct in saying it wasn’t much better than Cannon Strike, the level of force and pinpoint accuracy was still plenty.

“Someday, I will definitely make a spell that only I can use. Something with incredible precision and that requires special processing ability. Then you’ll know how frustrating this is, Lugh. It’s seriously annoying. Just watch, you’ll have this amazing magic staring you right in the face, but you won’t be able to use it. Mwa-ha-ha-ha.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

If anyone could achieve something like that, it was Dia. It would have to be something that demanded a high degree of mana control. Dia hated being wasteful. She wouldn’t go to the effort of making something troublesome to cast unless it was worth the effort twice over.

“Tarte, how are you feeling? You pushed yourself really hard,” I said.

Beastification took a significant toll on the body. Moreover, she’d used Dian Cecht and fought up until her transformation hit its limit. She was acting like things were all right, but she had to be exhausted.

“I-I’m a little tired, but I’m fine.” Contrary to Tarte’s words, her knees were shaking, and she was covered in sweat. Even standing had to be difficult.

The side effects of the drug were manifesting as well. Rapid Recovery accelerated her recuperation, but it also caused toxins to erupt throughout her body to expunge the drug. It was a painful sensation. There was no way she was only a little tired.

I smiled bitterly and picked Tarte up in my arms. I was taken aback by how incredibly warm she felt.

“Eek! Lord Lugh, why—?”

“Relax, Tarte. I’m going to carry you.”

I had our coachmen at a safe distance to ensure they didn’t get wrapped up in this. It would be impossible for Tarte to walk that far on her own as she was.

“But I’m your retainer,” she protested.

“Don’t worry about it. As teammates, it’s only natural that we support each other. Or do you find this objectionable?”

“…No, I don’t. It actually makes me really happy.”

Tarte blushed and looked away out of embarrassment.

“I’m a little jealous. But I’ll allow it for today. You had it harder than any of us this time, Tarte,” Dia stated, walking beside me.

“That’s right. You did great, Tarte,” I said.

She’d tackled the most perilous and challenging role expertly. I’d have been unfit as a leader if I didn’t tell her how good a job she did.

“N-no, what I did wasn’t all that great. Lady Dia is the one who cast Demonkiller, and Lord Lugh actually slew it!”

“Too much humility can sometimes upset other people. Are you saying that Dia and I are both wrong in our evaluation of your performance?” I teased gently. Tarte didn’t pick up on that and grew more flustered.

“N-no, I didn’t mean that at all…,” she hurriedly stammered.

Dia nodded to herself. “Then just accept our praise happily. Say, Lugh. What if you give her some kind of reward?”

“That’s a good idea. Is there anything you want, Tarte?” I inquired.

For some reason, that question made her face turn so red that I thought she was going to start whistling with steam.

“U-um, well, can I ask when we are alone?” she managed after a moment.

“Wow, you want to ask him away from my prying ears. Is it something naughty?” needled Dia.

“N-no, it’s not!”

“Yeah, I doubt it. You’re not nearly that daring a girl.”

Dia liked to bully Tarte sometimes. It was her way of showing affection.

Time passed, and we arrived at the carriage. The coachmen had waited at the specified place, just as I’d ordered. Yet something still bothered me.

I’d had the servants wait here so they wouldn’t get hurt, but also so they wouldn’t see how we fought the demon. It seemed strange that they’d all obeyed when you considered that the central government undoubtedly wanted information on how I went about killing demons.

I could see those in charge assuming I only pretended to fight and then fled. Surely they’d desire some method of confirmation. Why would they trust that I’d done the job when I had no proof?

Regardless of all that, no one had been dispatched to keep an eye on us. Thinking one of the coachmen might have been a spy, I’d been on the lookout the entire time, but I never sensed any of them near the battle. Of course, there was a chance they moved stealthily enough that they evaded detection, but it was difficult to imagine anyone could outmaneuver a Tuatha Dé.

Something was definitely up. If I thought about it logically, this meant the government possessed a method of checking that the demon was dead without having to be directly present.

How would they react when I told them I’d slain the demon? Why would they believe my report?

I’d have to search carefully for the answers to those questions.

Epilogue | The Assassin Gives a Kiss

Our carriage wasn’t bound for Tuatha Dé, but the royal capital. I needed to explain what happened with the demon in person.

I’d sent a letter ahead with a carrier pigeon. In it was a recounting of the demon and how I’d defeated it. I had little to hide, so I explained Demonkiller as well, and I wrote about Railgun in vague terms.

I decided to tell them I’d received Demonkiller from a goddess that appeared in my dreams. I outlined the characteristics and appearance of that deity in minute detail, basing her off of the one that sent me to this world. If she was indeed a goddess, there was a high chance legends of her had been passed down through the ages, which would increase the believability of my story.

My hope was that Demonkiller would spread throughout the land, and the notion that it was magic from the gods suited that purpose well. It would entice more people into using it.

That claim also functioned as a kind of bait. If all went to plan, it’d draw out a certain someone.

We stopped in a big town on the way to the capital. While we could have slept in the carriage, the government afforded us the VIP treatment and took care to ensure we were as comfortable as possible.

Dia, Tarte, and I were each given a special room at the best hotel in the town. We ate a delicious meal and then enjoyed a very satisfying bath.

The staff collected the clothes we were wearing so they could be washed, and we borrowed some comfortable loungewear. This establishment’s service truly was top-notch.

After eating, we retired to our rooms. The treatment was so lavish that even Tarte, a servant, was given her own chamber.

I heard a knock, and when I said to enter, Tarte walked in. Her comfortable, thin attire reminded me how attractive her body was.

“Lord Lugh, um, good evening.”

“Have you decided what reward you’re going to ask for?”

“Yes, I came here to tell you.”

The sweet fragrance coming off Tarte was making me dizzy.

It was a side effect of Beastification. Tarte remained slightly off for a day after using the skill. Any swelling of sexual excitement caused her control over herself to loosen. She also released a sweet fragrance and something like pheromones that attracted men and sent them into a tizzy.

Simply put, after Tarte used Beastification, she became irresistible to every man around her, which was dangerous.

However, I was the only person she was interested in. That was a source of comfort. I would have had to forbid her from using Beastification if she’d started indiscriminately assaulting men. Tarte was capable enough to drive off an attacker, but things could get dicey if she were the instigator.

The two of us were alone in my room. Dia was over in hers, working on a new spell. Tarte had stated earlier that she wanted to be alone with me when she asked for the reward, so Dia was doing the tactful thing and giving us some space.

Tarte shyly prodded the tips of her index fingers together in front of her chest. Looking at her was making my throat go dry and my heart beat fast. This was bad. At this rate, her fragrance and pheromones were going to do me in.

“Nothing you ask for is going to make me angry, so you don’t have to worry. Whenever you’re ready,” I said.

“O-okay.”

What in the world could it be if she’s this timid about saying it?

My thoughts were growing hazy. Still, I did my best to wait patiently. I didn’t want to scare her. After two or three minutes, Tarte found her courage and spoke up.

“Please kiss me, Lord Lugh! I want to kiss you for real, not just to replenish my mana!” she declared with conviction, her face turning pitifully red as tears welled up in her eyes.

I stared at her blankly. It was quite the letdown. I thought she was going to ask for something bigger.

No, that’s wrong, I thought. It took all the courage she had to request this. Tarte wanted a real kiss.

There were times when I’d pressed my lips on hers to restore her magical power, but a proper kiss clearly meant something different to her. Her appeal was a statement of love, and she wanted me to return those feelings.

Tarte was family. That’s what I’d always told her. Yet she had always admired me so much, and somewhere along the way, I came to treasure her. Realizing that cleared my mind of the haze brought about by the Beastification side effects.

“Sure, I don’t mind,” I replied.

I stood up, pulled Tarte into an embrace, and pressed my lips to hers.

Granting Tarte’s request went beyond touching our lips together—it also meant I requited Tarte’s feelings. That was too embarrassing to say aloud, though.

“Mmm, mmm.”

Tarte kissed me back. She was lovely beyond words and looked cuter than usual. It wasn’t from the Beastification pheromones. This was a warm feeling bursting from my heart that I knew was genuine.

Affection welled in my chest, and I was starting to think that we’d go further. However…

“Let’s stop there,” I decided.

“Thank you bery much,” Tarte replied, slurring her speech a little.

She gazed at me with moist eyes. I knew she’d be fine with continuing, and I didn’t think Dia would be upset, either.

But for now, stopping where we did was best. Going any further would’ve been too much for Tarte. She had her own pace, and I wanted to respect that.

“A real kiss… I’m so happy that I could die. Lord Lugh, thank you very much.”

“No gratitude is needed. It was a reward, and I was happy to indulge. Still, I’d feel bad if this was all you got. Before we leave tomorrow, let’s go to the market. I’ll buy you a present.”

“B-but the kiss was plenty. You don’t need to go that far.”

“It’s what I want to do. Try to dress up a little for it. You’re so cute. Don’t let that go to waste.”

“…Y-you called me cute…”

Tarte was practically overheating. She gave the funniest reactions.

Tomorrow, we could search for an accessory that’d bring out her beauty even more. For now, though, she needed to rest.

Things promised to get troublesome once we reached the royal capital. All three of us needed to relax while we could so that we were ready.

As I’d promised Tarte, we all went to the market the next day.

Dia wasted no time, getting to work teasing Tarte right away. Still, she was capable of reading the room and knew not to say anything that’d seriously upset her. The two girls had grown very close.

“So what did you ask of Lugh?”

“Th-that’s a secret!”

Tarte began to flush and grin as she remembered what happened yesterday. She looked happy and was likely glad that Dia had asked. After a moment, she whispered that she’d requested a kiss, and Dia smiled and congratulated her.

It was fun seeing them like this.

The shopping forum was bustling with activity. Stalls flanked both sides of the street, and we stopped to look at one that sold accessories. Judging from his wares, the craftsman was skilled and had good taste. Any of these would really accentuate Tarte’s charm, and they looked durable to boot.

I talked with the shopkeeper, and he said he was employed at a famous workshop. He wasn’t allowed to put his own crafts up for sale in the store yet, so he used his days off to hone his work and practice vending with a stall. That way, he could learn from his customers’ reactions, save money, and buy materials to help improve. Considering how passionate he was for his labor, the day when his creations were displayed prominently in the workshop probably wasn’t far off.

“Tarte, which of these do you like the best?” I inquired.

“Hmm. I like this hair ornament shaped like a white flower,” she replied, pointing to the object she’d set her sights on.

“That’s so like you. There are so many fancier items here,” Dia remarked.

She was right. There were many baubles with brighter colors, more expensive decorations, and more unique designs. However, Tarte had made up her mind.

“I thought this was pretty and elegant, and I really like it.”

I looked again at the hair ornament she’d chosen. It was a lovely thing, made from a white crystal that had been shaped into a blossom. While understated, its craft was undeniably tasteful.

It seemed quite like Tarte herself. She wasn’t the sort that liked to dress up, but she had her own brand of cuteness.

“Sir, we’re going to get this one,” I said.

“Is this a present? Would you like a ribbon on the packaging?”

“No, it’s good as is. We’re going to use it here.”

After paying, I fastened the trinket to Tarte’s hair. There was an effortless charm to it that suited her very well.

“Thank you very much. I’ll treasure it.”

Tarte patted the hair ornament as if showing her affection for it.

“Please do. And Dia, don’t sulk.”

“I’m not. Tarte worked really hard, so I understand why she got two presents and I’m empty-handed. It doesn’t bother me at all that you haven’t praised my efforts.”

Her body language betrayed her words. She was clearly upset.

“I have a gift for you, too, Dia. I just need some time to prepare it,” I assured her.

“Oh, really? That’s great! You’d better not forget about it. I’ll be angry if you do.”

“There’s no way it’ll slip my mind. I love you, Dia.”

I nodded to myself. Dia was going to love what I was preparing. It had taken a little time to gather all the necessary components, however. Before we’d left to deal with the demon, I’d received a message from Maha saying she’d obtained what I needed. Hopefully, Dia’s gift would be in Tuatha Dé by the time we returned.

When it was time to depart, the three of us returned to our carriage only to find another one parked next to it. It was larger than ours and sported exquisite craftsmanship by an elite blacksmith. A monster with hardened rhinoceros-like skin and bulging muscles was hitched to it.

Through the Balor Company information network, I’d learned of domains that had successfully domesticated certain monsters, but this was the first I’d seen in person. A single glance was all I required to understand why such a burly creature was necessary. This rhinoceros creature was leagues above a horse in stamina and strength. It’d get you to your destination far sooner.

The door to the ostentatious buggy opened, and a man dressed very much like a noble emerged.

“Sir Holy Knight, well done taking down your first demon. Preparations are already being made in the royal capital to celebrate your accomplishment. A grand feast is going to be held. Please enter Sleipnir, my carriage,” the aristocratic man invited with a polite bow.

I recognized him as Marquis Granvallen. He ranked far higher than I did.

He was a rather impressive figure. The man’s demeanor alone betrayed how strong he was. His reputation as one of the most skilled fighters in the kingdom was well deserved. Why was a person of such high standing coming all this way for me? And with such a fancy carriage, no less.

Most confusing of all, however, was why the government was celebrating my victory so soon. No one in the royal castle should have accepted my letter at face value. Something unusual was going on.

“Marquis Granvallen, I am deeply grateful. Dia, Tarte, let’s go,” I stated.

“Yes, my lord.”

“This carriage scares me a little.”

All right, what exactly am I stepping into here?

If those in charge did believe my missive, was it because they had indeed managed to dispatch an unseen spectator, or was it that they possessed some kind of system that could inform them when demons died?

The mysteries only continued to pile up as I pondered this odd situation. What was gained by sending a special carriage and conveying us to the capital as quickly as possible? Undoubtedly, the mighty Marquis Granvallen was sent to ensure we complied, but we had no reason to refuse.

Things were growing murkier by the second, but my only choice was to push onward through the fog.

There must be something in store for me at the palace. As I considered what it might be, I climbed into the carriage.

“This is getting fun.”

From here on, one mistake could mean death. On the other hand, I was inching ever closer to completing the task the goddess had bequeathed to me.

Afterword

Thank you very much for reading Volume 3 of The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat.

I am the author, Rui Tsukiyo.

This third installment starts to reveal some of the story’s secrets, and Tarte really gets to shine in a few different ways!

Some new characters appeared as well, making for an exciting story. I hope you enjoyed it.

The fourth book will see a return of characters from the academy, and those introduced in this volume are sure to get involved in things, too.

What’s more, it will have a limited-run edition that comes with an audio drama CD! I’m working hard on writing the script for that right now. I hope you’re excited to hear it!

Promotion

The first volume of the manga adaptation is currently available! Make sure not to miss out on Hamao Sumeragi’s amazing illustrations!

Another one of my series, The Reincarnated Prince Wants to Slack Off, is now on sale from GA Bunko! It’s the tale of a young man who’s reborn and uses knowledge of alchemy from his previous world to bring fortune to a poor country. The premise is similar to this series, and the main character is really cool, so I believe you will enjoy it!

Thanks

Reia, thank you very much for your beautiful illustrations in Volume 3. I am very grateful that you took the time out of your busy schedule to put your heart into these works. Every time I introduce a new character, I look forward to seeing how you’ll portray them.

Lead Editor Miyagawa, you have my gratitude for your constant, quick, and honest feedback.

Thank you to the editing team and all involved at Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. I’d also like to extend my deep gratitude to Lead Designer Takahisa Atsuji and everyone who’s read this far!

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.

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Contents

1. Cover
2. Insert
3. Title Page
4. Copyright
5. Prologue | The Assassin Returns Home
6. Chapter 1 | The Assassin Goes Hunting

7. Chapter 2 | The Assassin Scolds His Student

8. Chapter 3 | The Assassin Receives a New Mission

9. Chapter 4 | The Assassin Devises a Method of Killing Demons

10. Chapter 5 | The Assassin Goes on a Family Trip

11. Chapter 6 | The Assassin Gains New Power

12. Chapter 7 | The Assassin Rejects a Proposal

13. Chapter 8 | The Assassin Is Named a Holy Knight

14. Chapter 9 | The Assassin Goes on a Date

15. Chapter 10 | The Assassin Performs a Promotion

16. Chapter 11 | The Assassin Obtains a Long-Awaited Item

17. Chapter 12 | The Assassin Is Targeted

18. Chapter 13 | The Assassin Develops Something

19. Chapter 14 | The Assassin Is Enchanted

20. Chapter 15 | The Assassin Gives Something a Try

21. Chapter 16 | The Assassin Is Defeated

22. Chapter 17 | The Assassin Experiments

23. Chapter 18 | The Assassin Smokes Out the Enemy

24. Chapter 19 | The Assassin Spectates
25. Chapter 20 | The Assassin Takes Aim
26. Chapter 21 | The Assassin Gives Praise
27. Epilogue | The Assassin Gives a Kiss
28. Afterword
29. Yen Newsletter

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2. Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Title Page
Prologue | The Assassin Reincarnates
Chapter 1 | The Assassin Chooses His Skills

Chapter 2 | The Assassin Learns the Family Creed

Chapter 3 | The Assassin Gets His Eyes
Chapter 4 | The Assassin Studies Magic
Chapter 5 | The Assassin Learns Spells
Chapter 6 | The Assassin Creates New Magic

Chapter 7 | The Assassin Utilizes Knowledge from His Previous World

Chapter 8 | The Assassin Promises to Meet Again

Chapter 9 | The Assassin Finds an Assistant

Chapter 10 | The Assassin Receives a Test

Chapter 11 | The Assassin Receives His Final Trial

Chapter 12 | The Assassin Departs
Chapter 13 | The Assassin Becomes a Merchant
Chapter 14 | The Assassin’s Little Sister
Chapter 15 | The Assassin’s New Product
Chapter 16 | The Assassin Achieves Success

Interlude | The Goddess’s Guidance and a Fated Encounter

Chapter 17 | The Assassin Returns Home

Chapter 18 | The Assassin Gathers Information

Chapter 19 | The Assassin’s First Assassination

Chapter 20 | The Assassin Makes a Decision

Chapter 21 | The Assassin Makes Haste

Chapter 22 | The Assassin Runs to His Princess

Chapter 23 | The Assassin Releases the God Spear

Epilogue | How Lugh Tuatha Dé Chooses to Live

The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 2 by Rui Tsukiyo

- Cover

- Prologue | The Assassin Gains a New Family Member

- Chapter 1 | The Assassin Goes Shopping

- Chapter 2 | The Assassin Obtains a Divine Treasure

- Chapter 3 | The Assassin Arrives at the Royal Knights Academy

- Chapter 4 | The Assassin Meets the Hero

- Chapter 5 | The Assassin Finishes His Exam

- Chapter 6 | The Assassin Receives a Secret Mission

- Chapter 7 | The Assassin and the Hero Become Friends

- Chapter 8 | The Assassin Goes to Class

- Chapter 9 | The Assassin and the Hero Face Off

- Chapter 10 | The Assassin Gains the Hero’s Confidence

- Chapter 11 | The Assassin Tests a Killing Move

- Chapter 12 | The Assassin Assassinates an Assassin

- Chapter 13 | The Assassin Performs Surgery

- Interlude | The Assassin Makes the Hero a Promise

- Chapter 14 | The Assassin Receives Military Duty

- Chapter 15 | The Assassin Shares Some Mana
- Chapter 16 | The Assassin Fights Orcs
- Chapter 17 | The Assassin Fails
- Chapter 18 | The Assassin Apologizes
- Chapter 19 | The Assassin Searches
- Chapter 20 | The Assassin Decides to Help

- Chapter 21 | The Assassin Comes to the Rescue

- Chapter 22 | The Assassin Shows His Real Power

- Chapter 23 | The Assassin Gains the Hero’s Trust

- Epilogue | The Assassin Leaves the Academy

The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 3 by Rui Tsukiyo

- Cover
- Title Page
- Prologue | The Assassin Returns Home
- Chapter 1 | The Assassin Goes Hunting
- Chapter 2 | The Assassin Scolds His Student

- Chapter 3 | The Assassin Receives a New Mission

- Chapter 4 | The Assassin Devises a Method of Killing Demons

- Chapter 5 | The Assassin Goes on a Family Trip

- Chapter 6 | The Assassin Gains New Power

- Chapter 7 | The Assassin Rejects a Proposal

- Chapter 8 | The Assassin Is Named a Holy Knight

- Chapter 9 | The Assassin Goes on a Date

- Chapter 10 | The Assassin Performs a Promotion

- Chapter 11 | The Assassin Obtains a Long-Awaited Item

- Chapter 12 | The Assassin Is Targeted

- Chapter 13 | The Assassin Develops Something

- Chapter 14 | The Assassin Is Enchanted

- Chapter 15 | The Assassin Gives Something a Try

- Chapter 16 | The Assassin Is Defeated

- Chapter 17 | The Assassin Experiments

- Chapter 18 | The Assassin Smokes Out the Enemy

- Chapter 19 | The Assassin Spectates
- Chapter 20 | The Assassin Takes Aim
- Chapter 21 | The Assassin Gives Praise
- Epilogue | The Assassin Gives a Kiss
- Afterword
- Yen Newsletter