353. Not taken away, but taken away (2)
The academy, where outsiders were allowed to enter, was more lively and more chaotic than usual.
I heard that the last time outsiders were allowed was 10 years ago. It was because of the war. No matter how closed it is, shouldn’t it accept refugees?
“Zeto, isn’t it dangerous? It looks like a lot of outsiders have already arrived.”
Aizel puts her hands on her waist and narrows her eyes with a humming sound. Loki, who was visible behind Eisel, said, ‘I’m finally home from work.’ He was going home mumbling something like this.
The meeting ended well, so it was time to part ways.
“It’s okay. If he were a person who was going to die from being stabbed while passing by, he would have died a long time ago.”
“…You’ve already been in and out of the coffin once.”
Crank criticizes my taunts.
“”……””
But maybe because it wasn’t wrong, everyone’s attention was instantly focused on me.
Once I died and came back to life, it became difficult to logically refute the topic of death.
“That’s… A demon.”
I turned my back and tried to ignore their gaze. Kaen asks once again.
“Are you sure it’s okay?”
“hahahaha, it’s okay.”
If the assassin rolled in, it was a good thing for me.
It’s a cruel thing to say, but you can gain experience points and, if you’re lucky, you may be able to dig up unexpected information.
“Then everyone, please go in carefully.”
With those words, I walked towards the dormitory.
***
“Zeto, you are leaving in a very hasty manner. Were you worried about your younger sisters?”
Lucia asked as she pouted her mouth and stared at Zeto who had disappeared into the distance.
It wasn’t a question I really wanted an answer to.
“…That could be true.”
Nevertheless, an insincere answer comes out of my mouth due to a desire that has been in my head for a while.
Tonight, I will somehow end up getting him.
That was the only thought in my head.
***
[ …He’s quite picky these days. ]
Sierra, who was rejected by me, stands in front of me with her arms crossed and mutters softly.
You have to be able to resist clinging to your side all day and blowing into your ears. Unlike before, my concentration was poor, so even the slightest stimulation made it difficult for my mind to withstand it, so there was nothing I could do about it.
However, her eyes could not turn and attack Sierra, her spiritual body. She was confident that if anyone saw her shaking her hips in the air alone, she would cut their stomach open and die on the spot.
Of course, the fact that it is a spirit body is also quite tempting… What am I thinking right now? It seemed like the snowball of 4 points consumed due to the ‘soaring power’ was growing in size.
If she had known that there would be such side effects, she would have taken the time to consume them one by one, but Kaen’s eyes that met hers at that time were so cruel that she could not do anything.
‘It was a look in his eyes that said he would rape you until he died…’
“…”
As she walks down the street, lost in her thoughts, she ends up being held in the chest by Sierra, who was blocking her path.
“…Please move out of the way, Master.”
[Why not just avoid it? But seeing as she still came and bumped into me, I guess she wanted to make fun of me for the first time in a long time. ]
“……”
Sierra’s chest was still so soft that she thought it would be nice to sleep like this. But if she falls too deep, it becomes difficult for her to get out.
As soon as she managed to pull her head out, Sierra, who had been comforting me as if I were a child, tilted her head with a look on her face that said she didn’t know which melody to play.
“Let’s go in quickly. If we stay outside any longer, something troublesome will happen.”
From assassins and demons aiming for my head to nobles who approach me with favor. From now on, when the Academy’s doors were wide open, it wasn’t strange to meet anyone.
Sierra asks this.
[Are you afraid? ]
“Why me?”
[ Our pretty student has a tendency to dislike unexpected things. ]
“Wouldn’t everyone hate it?”
[ You don’t know the horror of your power. ]
Sierra taps my forehead with a graceful gesture of her hand.
From Noble mtl dot com
[ Have you ever heard the words of an arrogant prophet? ]
“What do you mean by words?”
[ This is a story told in the East. It is said that once upon a time, there was a prophet of great skill who could predict everything that would happen in the world. Knowing the future was a power more powerful than any other martial arts skill. The Prophet used his power to gain wealth and fame, and lived a truly arrogant life. ]
“That’s an interesting story.”
[ But at some point, his strength disappeared. I can no longer see the future. All humans do not know their future and live buried in unpredictable events, but what do you think the arrogant prophet must have been like? ]
“Couldn’t you adapt?”
[ I couldn’t adapt. I was afraid of the future, and I couldn’t bear the fact that an unpredictable tomorrow was coming. They say that in the end, he was so overcome by fear that he committed suicide. ]
“I’m not afraid of tomorrow. I’m not that arrogant either.”
[ But the fear of something unpredictable happening is the same. In fact, this story was not created as a warning to the few prophets. This story was probably created to teach a lesson to those who pursue perfection. So… ]
“…Are you saying that we need to be able to accept unexpected results?”
[ Didn’t that arrogant prophet even think that his power would eventually disappear? She sees a boy who is holding her in fear and she wonders if what she is seeing is wrong? Don’t think that just because her eyes are hidden behind those white bandages makes her emotions difficult to read. ]
Sierra touches the bandage around my eye and then slowly sweeps it down my cheek.
She doesn’t know what to say because it stings the part she was trying so hard to ignore.
It is true that after returning to the East, I felt anxious about what would happen in the future.
Special peninsula, harmony between East and West.
These are all things I have never experienced before.
It was clear that the situation would change significantly in the future. Even though I thought it would happen at some point, I couldn’t completely shake off the fear.
However, in the future, we will need to humbly accept the uncertain future that we will create with our own hands.
“Thank you for the advice.”
[ Isn’t it also the teacher’s duty to control the student’s distracted spirit? Rather… ]
Sierra, who was hugging me and patting her back, soon turned her head and looked at her surroundings.
“Yes, a guest has arrived.”
I walked through a deserted forest just in case, and sure enough, the guests who came to see me greeted me with metal utensils.
It’s true that I threw the net, but I didn’t expect to catch this many fish.
About 30 people.
If this was the number, I thought that an entire assassination guild had come.
[Did you know? ]
“Of course.”
[But why are you having a normal conversation with her real wife? ]
“It’s okay. What would soon-to-be-dead humans do if they understood the mutterings of a madman?”
I took out Sierra from my waist and muttered lowly.
***
Rainbund’s crow.
As the name suggests, it was an assassination guild that mainly operated around Rainbund.
Most of the members of the guild were orphans born in Rainbund, who were trained and raised together in an orphanage taken over by a retired assassin.
Recently, there was news that tickled the ears of ‘Jjaram’, the guild leader and owner of an orphanage. It was a blind man with a large sum of 60,000 gold hanging around his neck.
‘60,000 Gold for a blind man?’
After digging deeper into the suspiciously large bounty, I found out that he was already a celebrity in the behind-the-scenes world.
Jjaram was running a rather classic guild, receiving work directly from Rainbund and handling the work rather than using networks and intermediaries in the back world, so he heard the news late.
Jjaram, who thought that the guild needed to expand, decided that the large amount of money hanging around the blind man’s neck could be put to very useful use, and at that moment, he heard the news that the Innocence Academy, where the blind man lived, was opening to outsiders.
Jaram, who saw this as a golden opportunity given by God, immediately ordered the crows to prepare for the trip.
In this way, Rainbund’s crows left Rainbund’s land for the first time in their lives.
Of course, there were negative opinions.
‘Father, I read the newspaper containing his actions. They say he can hear people’s hearts from a thousand miles away.’
‘Yes. ‘Isn’t there a good reason why he hasn’t died yet, even though there is a huge bounty on him?’
However, Jjaram waved his hand and dismissed the crow’s voices of concern.
Jaram was not a fool either.
It seemed like an exaggeration, but of course he read the newspaper that contained the blind man’s excellent description of the battle.
‘Not one of them exploited his weaknesses.’
If the description in the newspaper is true, he also had weaknesses.
‘He is so good at all senses other than sight that he can easily replace a blind eye. In that case, wouldn’t he be done if he blocked out all of his senses?’
In the end, being blind cannot help but become a disadvantage.
‘These are spells that will remove the sound from your bodies. There is a time limit, but if you kill it quickly, it won’t be a problem. And this is a perfume that will erase your bad smell. Unless you can see through the bandages, you’ll have a hard time reading your movements with these alone.’
The crows were impressed by Jjaram’s preparedness.
With the voices of concern gone, they were able to cross the main gate of Innocence Academy and enter the academy grounds.
It was explained to the instructors guarding the main gate that it was a blacksmith’s union that came to sell weapons to the cadets.
In fact, the weapons in the carriage were special weapons for only one cadet.
20 Poisoned knives.
10 Crossbows capable of firing multiple shots.
Of course, the bolts used for the crossbow were coated with the same poison as the knife.
Although it was a matter of life or death, if possible, they aimed to capture him alive so that he could receive more money.
Jjaram prepared a special poison called ‘Basilisk tears’ for the blind. If you just brush against it, it will harden into stone in less than a few minutes.
As Jjaram was a seasoned assassin, he was very careful and prepared to the fullest.
From scrolls to perfume, weapons and poison.
About 5,000 gold was consumed just for preparation.
However, I did not feel that the investment was a waste because I thought I could get 60,000 gold.
Now all we have to do is spot the blind man and wait for him to pass through the quiet space.
I was able to find him not long after.
It was easy to find as it had a very striking feature and attracted the attention of passers-by along the way.
‘If you prepare well, things will go well.’
The corner of Jalam’s mouth caught his ear as he looked at the blind man’s back heading toward the deserted forest.
He chased after the blind man and hid behind a tree with the crows he had raised, watching him.
When a black-haired blind man walking down the street suddenly stopped, Jjaram clenched his fists and ordered the crows following him to stop.
Then the blind man begins talking to himself into the air.
“That’s an interesting story.”
I don’t know why, but it felt like I was having a conversation with someone.
“……”
Jalam and the crows quietly waited for their time.
They didn’t care at all even if the target they were aiming for was a madman talking to an invisible ghost.
“Yes, a guest has arrived.”
Until meaningful words came out of the blind man’s mouth.
“Of course. …It’s okay. What would soon-to-be-dead people do if they understood the mutterings of a madman?”
Then, the blind man’s voice rang low and he moved his hand to the sword at his waist.
“…!”
Jjaram gave the order to fire in no time.
The sharp bolts fired from the crossbow were immediately aimed at the blind man.
ㅡChaechaechaeng!!
The blind man swings his sword and strikes the bolt.
Perhaps this could be seen as a natural result. Because there was no silence spell on the bolt.
ㅡFit!
But wasn’t he perfect?
A bolt passes by his shoulder.
‘It passed by…!’
Jjaram also falls into confusion.
What he was truly aiming for was a series of attacks from crows with a silent spell from a crossbow. The crossbow was merely a device to blind the blind people. However, after firing multiple shots at once, the attack was allowed to be so easy that I felt like I was losing my temper.
‘Wait.’
Of course, Jjaram chose to wait.
What would you do by chasing a poisoned monster?
I had no doubt that if I waited just a little longer, the blind man’s body would become stiff, so I waited.
“……”
But isn’t the body of a blind person moving well even as time passes?
There were no mistakes.
Jjaram applied poison directly to each bolt.
There was only one answer. For some reason, the powerful poison called Basilisk tears did not work on him.
‘Damn…’
In the end, before time was lost, Jjaram gave the order to charge the crows, who were like his own children. It had been a long time since the capture had already crossed the water.
Immediately, the crows, without making a single sound, quietly run towards the blind man.
ㅡKeying!
However, with a sad sound, the heads of the fifteen crows that rushed in were cut off at once. What was strange was that the blind man’s sword did not even come close to their necks.
‘Intangible sword energy…’
Jaram’s mouth opens at that ridiculous sight.
‘Why…?’
The preparation was perfect.
No ‘sound’, which was the most important information when dealing with a blind person, was made, and the scent of crows, which would help determine movement, would have naturally mixed with the wind passing through the forest.
The questions that were messing with Jjaram’s head eventually reach a conclusion.
He made three mistakes.
First, the blind man with 60,000 gold around his neck had no ‘weakness’.
The description in the newspaper article is wrong, or the blind man covering his eyes with a white bandage can actually see.
Well, it was a problem either way.
Secondly, he was not poisoned.
It was truly a difficult problem that the rare yet expensive poison called Basilisk tears did not work. Either it has a unique body that is impervious to poison, or it is immune to basilisk tears.
From Noble mtl dot com
This, like before, was a problem either way.
Lastly, he had a ‘companion’.
ㅡPuuk.
A blade whiter than moonlight pierces Jjalam’s chest.
“…Wook.”
Jaram, who was coughing up blood, struggled to turn his head behind him.
Then his eyes caught the image of a beautiful woman with flowing pink hair.
Behind her, the broken corpses of crows could be seen here and there in her forest. While he was only thinking for a moment, both mice and birds were annihilated without even realizing it.
“……”
The unknown woman who suddenly appeared without any sign was not even looking at Jalam. Her light blue eyes were fixed on the blind man beyond her.
“Puhak…!”
Soon, the blade slides out and Jalam’s body tilts and falls to the floor.
As Jaram’s eyes were slowly closing, a girl’s shy voice was heard in his ears.
“So… I told you it was dangerous… Right? Cadet Zeto.”