Chapter 33
When Klapen, who had been beaten senseless and knocked out, was having a slightly dim-witted dream, muttering, ‘Our family is an assassination noble house…… kek…….’
An ordinary assassin whom the paradoxical phrase ‘assassination noble house’ couldn’t even begin to encompass.
That was why people who could quietly slit throats from the shadows without performing the heretical act known as aisatsu were also prowling the night streets.
Though they weren’t as formidable as Klapen, who could handle sword aura, assassination is, after all, about exploiting openings, like a claw-machine operator going after a whining brat.
They put their own specialties to use and began assassinating the key figures.
“Heh-heh, this poison can kill even an elephant.”
There was also a considerate assassin who spread the prepared poison through the air so his target could meet a peaceful death in sleep.
“Explosions are…… art……!”
Boom!
There was also an assassin who, following Middle Eastern traditional etiquette, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and treated the city center to a fireworks display.
And so, in this paradise for lunatics freely flaunting their signature techniques,
there was also a homegrown assassin who, true to the operation’s codename, lurked alone in the shadows with only a dagger in hand.
His target was Baron Allen.
His title itself wasn’t especially high, but he was the kind of man whose broad network produced all kinds of anti-high-noble grumbling, so he’d drawn plenty of dislike.
After already scouting the baron’s estate several times, even visiting that very afternoon disguised as a milk deliveryman, he slipped over the manor wall far too easily.
Tap, tap──
With footwork so nimble it barely even deserved an exclamation mark, he slipped into the house with ease.
He glided through the house, where the only sound was the servants’ snoring.
He leisurely retrieved the emergency key buried in the fireplace ash, then headed straight for the bedchamber.
Swish.
Using the moonlight drifting faintly through the window as his romantic backdrop, he drove the dagger straight into the bed.
A clean death without even a scream…….
……?
The feel of it was wrong.
He hurriedly lifted the blanket a little to check inside.
Inside the blanket.
No one was there.
.
.
.
The same thing was happening all across the capital.
Even in rooms overflowing with poison.
Even inside mansions where bombs had exploded.
Until dawn broke, not a single life was lost.
In fact, some assassins even violated their operating rules and went searching for targets, only to end up getting arrested.
The night of daggers, which had begun so grandly,
came to a meager and futile end.
* * *
“From the Holy Kingdom’s point of view, letting trouble break out in the Empire would probably have been more beneficial to its national interests.”
The Empire’s blue sky, still unyellowed.
When the emperor stroked his beard and spoke, a clear, refreshing laugh quietly spread.
“Surprisingly, I don’t particularly like the Holy Kingdom either.”
At the monster saintess Roselyn’s words,
an odd glint settled in the emperor’s eyes.
“Even if we’re in a private space right now, is it all right for a saintess to speak so casually?”
“Of course. How could a mere country decide the will of a goddess?”
Though brazen, Roselyn raised a dazzling, radiant light in her hand as if to prove it.
It was both proof that she shared the goddess’s power and evidence that she kept her faith deep in her heart.
The emperor burst out laughing.
“Ha ha! If I were the pope, I’d be a bit sore because of you.”
“What a disappointing thing to say.”
As they chatted, the emperor suddenly raised his head and looked straight ahead.
They were in a masquerade hall.
Even at that late hour, the people drinking and laughing wore faces full of energy.
It was only natural.
It wasn’t a place where anyone could afford to look tired.
No matter how much the Upper and Lower Houses checked the emperor, there still wasn’t a single gutsy person in the Empire who would ignore an invitation stamped with the emperor’s seal.
If there had been?
By now, they’d already have had an assassin dangling from their neck at home.
Their cause of death would likely have been ruled natural death, too.
.
.
.
After seeing off Roselyn, the voluptuous woman in the chicken mask.
“I’ve secured some of the culprits, Your Majesty.”
Seeing the duck-masked attendant carefully approach and report, the emperor nodded.
Then, without showing any particular reaction, he took a sip of wine and sorted out his thoughts.
He knew Bertus would bare his teeth sooner or later, but the timing was earlier than expected.
That wasn’t like the Bertus he knew.
Where had that perfect, iron-blooded thoroughness he showed on the battlefield gone, if he was even leaking information to key figures of a potential enemy state?
Well…….
Still, one part of his plan would be perfect.
No matter how much he dug through the captured assassins, no loose end would turn up.
His plans had always been like that.
“Then perhaps this was the counterattack he’d been waiting for.”
Starting with the Grand Duke of the North, who openly said he disliked the current emperor, the Empire still had many of the emperor’s political enemies.
This might be a gap he deliberately exposed in order to act out the role of a “persecuted loyal retainer.”
So instead of warning him directly, he’d also thrown out the masquerade ball as bait.
Of course, just as one cannot cover the sky with a palm.
If they simply left the attempted assassination alone, there would surely be talk.
Well.
That was likely something Duke Bertus would handle on his own.
Still, for now.
For now, the Empire must not fracture.
Thinking that, the emperor drank again.
A bitter taste lingered on the tip of his tongue.
* * *
After safely getting home with Esthea Shield running the whole way.
The next day, after devising a plan to screw over Duke Bertus, who had the gall to grant me a favor and then saddle me with a grudge as well.
I stepped out of my room holding my secret weapon, Lee Dae-ho’s signed bat.
To become a great author.
Because even with death looming before my eyes, I still had to somehow write the chapter that had to be serialized today.
Of course.
- Ugh-gyak──!
I was clutching tightly the extra scale I’d coaxed out of Nureongi.
I planned to keep calling out, ‘Baby Nureong-emon, help me!’ whenever trouble seemed likely to crop up.
……But is this right?
If it’s a dragon, shouldn’t it be some lofty, haughty sort of being?
Why is he all ‘krrrang-nurrang-nongnong’ like that?
But if I pointed that out, it felt like I’d just be pouring fuel on Kim Yul’s friendly attitude, so I decided not to mention it.
Good things are good things.
“So peaceful…….”
Even though I’d made every preparation.
No foolish assassin who’d throw aisatsu at me showed up again.
The Empire’s capital was still shining beautifully, and the streets overflowed with bright smiles—a thoroughly ordinary scene.
……It was hard to think, “Was I the only one in danger?”
“Truth Daily.”
“Thanks!”
As I tried once again to increase my daily reader count by one and checked the paper’s society section, it seemed some sort of conspiracy had indeed swept across the city.
A mysterious explosion accident. No casualties.
Gas leak accident. One minor injury.
Sight damage caused by witnessing illegal flyers. What is this.
In any case, though no one had died, I looked over the signs of accidents that could easily have killed people, occurring all at once.
I could be certain these incidents were also Duke Bertus’s doing.
The evidence?
A gut feeling.
Wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that the guy who had tried to harm a harmless, low-presence writer like me had also set off other incidents at the same time?
“Oh myyy! Writerrrr!”
Our wonderful saintess, who somehow looked a little more cheerful, prettier, and even more chesty than usual today, was waving her hand.
.
.
.
“……You had something like that happen? So that’s why you brought out something so bizarre.”
“This isn’t bizarre; it’s a divine treasure imbued with the spirit of Sajik.”
“The spirit of Sajik?”
Naturally, Roselyn, who knew nothing about baseball, tilted her head, but, well, I forgave her.
In fact, the Ohtani-signed bat, which I could truly call an S-rank treasure, was still enshrined in the lab.
……I just couldn’t bring myself to hold that thing and swing it.
“Duke Bertus, huh…… hmm…….”
“It’s a gut feeling. I don’t have any hard evidence.”
Since I couldn’t exactly say the lizardman had fired brainwashing waves to extract a confession, I had no proof.
“Indeed, that does sound like something he’d do.”
“……You believe me?”
“Of course! If I didn’t trust the author who’s been gradually giving Liu Bei a romance narrative, who would I trust?”
“……Hmph.”
Was it really that reason?
Well, in truth, it was a plot I’d slipped in partly because I was a little conscious of Roselyn.
I’d breezed past the Xu Province blaze of filial piety, but because of it, Tao Qian’s blood pressure shot up and shortened his life, and the big-eared guy was just about to gobble up his spot.
In the process, I’d also depicted the encounter with Mi Zhu, the big-shot rich man of Xu Province.
He was far too great to be lumped together with the Gan-Sun-Mi brothers.
Gan Yong was a real bro.
Sun Qian won the award for “no presence,” though.
Mi Zhu was the master of buying the Liu Bei coin at its lowest point.
I don’t know if he’d been charmed by some high elf’s seduction spell or what, but he was a man with a beast’s heart, enough to invest his entire fortune in Liu Bei, who had nothing but Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
……With a lineup like Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, I guess that’s understandable.
Anyway.
If I’d made it sound like his younger sister had been sold off just for investment, Roselyn might actually have killed me, so I’d boosted Lady Mi into the main heroine position instead.
“You can look forward to more in the future.”
“Kyaa!”
Seeing her wriggle with happiness warmed my heart too.
…….
…….
Changban Slope…….
Should I skip it?
* * *
The next day, after Kim Yul spent the night seriously agonizing over whether he should alter the Romance of the Three Kingdoms so that Lady Gan, instead of Lady Mi, would be thrown into the well.
[Two Heroes Special – 3 Consecutive Installments]
“Kyaa!”
Esthea let out a cheer, clutching the promised sword of serial updates.
Because the developments in both of Kim Yul’s novels had been satisfying lately.
If either one had been a little disappointing, she wouldn’t have grunted and torn off one more barely grown scale that day to give him.
Cao Cao was, after all, a villain, but as befitted a man who kept warmth in his heart, his reckless drive to avenge his father was appealing.
And Liu Bei, without flaunting the atrocities of Cao Cao—the man who had once acknowledged him—was fully showing off his righteous side.
How thrillingly romantic!
This is it!
So giddy with excitement, she shoved the other newspapers aside, sat on the bench again, kicked her legs, and opened Truth Daily.
And then.
“……Why is Lü Bu showing up here? Zhang Miao betrayed him? Wait, Zhang Miao is Cao Cao’s friend, right? Heck, wasn’t he even the one Cao Cao helped save when Yuan Shao told him to kill him?”
At Zhang Miao’s shocking betrayal—the governor of Chenliu and Cao Cao’s ally.
Nureongi’s horn grew hot.
The reason Esthea was angry was just one thing.
“If you were going to cut it off here, whyyyyy──!”
Why is Cao Cao fated to be the villain? Don’t know.
Why does Lü Bu run around like that? Don’t know.
Why is Zhang Miao like that? Don’t know.
Who is Chen Gong? Don’t know.
Why did the people of Yanzhou betray him? Don’t know.
Why doesn’t Xun Yu speak plainly? Don’t know.
What is the meaning of Liu Bei’s bloodline? Don’t know.
Why doesn’t Sun Jian use the Imperial Seal?
Holding all those questions in her heart.
“Spatium! te ipsum dilacera et mihi viam para──!”
Kugugu……!
In the middle of the city, she revealed her horns and tail and chanted draconic words.
Since spatial travel always made her nauseous and she’d end up going bleh after using it, she usually held back and instead bounced around or fluttered about.
But today, Esthea lacked the patience for that.
Her target was the place where her scale was.
She’d meant to drop straight onto Kim Yul’s head, where he had only managed three consecutive installments instead of four, and strangle him with her legs.
“Ugh-gek!”
The spatial rift that had swallowed her spat her right back out onto the bench she’d been sitting on, with no warning at all.
“What the……?”
In her life, which was by no means short.
There had been very few times when spatial travel had been blocked.
Only twice.
Once when she tried to rob the secret vault of an 8th-circle archmage, only to be blocked by powerful dimensional protection magic.
And once when she was so absorbed in the goddess’s story that she tried to travel to the divine realm just to ask, “Was that real?”