Ordinary Assassins

Chapter 44

As usual, after finishing her mission and heading home, Christina diverted into a deserted alley and spoke to the empty air.

“Why don’t you come out already?”

As if in response to her words, a number of figures emerged from the darkness.

Christina glanced lightly at those surrounding her and smiled, baring her teeth.

“Is this it? Aren’t you underestimating me, *Oppa*?”

“………”

The man called *Oppa* silently lowered his mask.

His name was Cedric Schafer.

A member of the Schafer assassination clan, and Christina Schafer’s own brother.

“I knew you’d been following me for days. I was letting you be, wondering what you were planning, but if this is all you prepared, then it was just a waste of time.”

Cedric’s mouth finally opened as he watched his sister shake her head in disappointment.

“………Your emotions have become quite rich.”

“It’s thanks to my meeting with the Minister. I’m grateful. If you hadn’t ordered me to assassinate the Emperor, I wouldn’t have met him.”

Christina straightened her posture.

Superficially, it looked like she was surrounded, but frankly, she didn’t care.

The difference in combat power was too great to overcome. She could turn everyone here, including her brother, into minced meat cutlets in the blink of an eye.

‘He wouldn’t have come just to die, so he must have prepared something, but even so, it’s no problem.’

Before such overwhelming power, petty tricks are meaningless.

Just as Christina, radiating a killing aura with an attitude that dared them to try anything, was about to tear them into shreds,

Both hands of the entire clan, including Cedric, rose in the air.

Impossible as it was, it looked as if they were surrendering.

“What kind of trickery is this now?”

“It’s no trick. It’s surrender.”

“That’s what trickery *is*, you doltish brother.”

Christina frowned, but a moment later, her eyes widened like a startled rabbit.

Cedric, who had been gazing at her with a calm face, suddenly knelt.

Knowing how proud the Shaper clan was, she couldn’t help but be bewildered.

“What, what are you doing?!”

“I knelt because you seemed unable to believe we’re surrendering. If this isn’t enough, order anything. We’ll lick your feet, even eat dirt.”

Christina felt a sense of bewilderment.

She called him “brother,” but there was no true familial bond between them.

Regardless, the Cedric Shaper she remembered would have chosen death before kneeling to his sister.

“…You didn’t come to kill me?”

“No. The clan abandoned and forgot you the moment you failed to assassinate the Imperial Emperor.”

“Thank you *so* much, brother, for so kindly reminding me of my past as a tool used and then discarded.”

Christina, relaxing her posture, scratched her head.

She didn’t know the full situation yet, but at least the Shaper clan hadn’t come to eliminate her.

Of course, she couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility that this was all an act to lower her guard.

“So what is it? If you didn’t come to fight, what did you come for?”

“……”

Unable to answer immediately, Cedric kept his mouth shut for a long moment before speaking with difficulty.

“We wish to entrust ourselves to the Imperial Minister… So, we hope you can serve as a bridge.”

“…What?”

—

I am now at the Jedu branch of the Merchant Guild Association.

Unlike last time, I am not visiting to complain about defects in a purchased item.

Only because the Merchant Guild Chairman suggested a cup of tea.

Come to think of it, branch manager Maximilian Jamel hasn’t been seen lately.

Ever since he was taken in by the Information Bureau after that incident at the department store, his whereabouts have grown quite vague.

Could he have been demoted for that? If so, I feel a slight pang of guilt.

Still, that bookcase is as covetable as ever.

“Forgive me for the wait, Minister.”

As I was inwardly drooling over the magnificent bookcase, the door opened and an elderly man with snow-white hair entered.

Rising from my seat as a matter of courtesy, I extended my hand to the old man.

“Chairman Heizen.”

“It’s been too long. Ah, you may call me Gustav, please, feel free.”

Not feeling it.

Sitting across from Chairman Heizen, who was flashing a slick smile, a young man who seemed to be his secretary-slash-bodyguard brought the tea.

“This is a tea currently trending in the Republic of Falsitas. I sincerely hope it suits your palate, Minister.”

I savored the aroma with my nose, then took a sip.

Hm, not to my taste.

“Fine stuff.”

“Haha, I’m glad to hear it.”

Chairman Heizen smiled, delighted, and we had a quiet tea time for a while.

Then, after I’d drunk about half, the Chairman began to speak.

“I am well aware that you have been deeply troubled lately, by various matters.”

Deeply troubled?

What’s he on about? I’m living without a care in the world.

“If anyone should be deeply troubled, it’s not me, but the Chairman of a vast organization like the Merchant Guild, wouldn’t you say?”

“…I cannot deny that.”

See?

Unlike me, who spends my days playing around, Chairman Heizen looks busy just by glancing at him.

“When many people gather, such things are bound to happen.”

“…You were aware?”

Was I? I just tossed out a saying I vaguely remembered.

But Chairman Heizen seemed somehow moved by my words, and continued, wearing a face of gratitude, as if I’d truly understood.

“As you say, wherever people gather, factions are bound to arise. The Merchant’s Guild is no different. In fact, with money involved, it’s even worse.”

Hmm. Factions. Factions, you say.

Wait, were there factions within the Intelligence Agency?

Is that something everyone knew but me?

“Where there’s a dominant faction, there’s always a dissenting one. The dissenters always crave entry into the main group, but the dominant faction rarely allows it. This leads them to sometimes undertake perilous endeavors. Like this recent incident.”

This incident? I don’t know the details, but something must have happened within the Merchant’s Guild.

If he’s complaining to an outsider like me, this Guild President’s job must be more strenuous than it appears.

“Those involved in this incident are all part of that dissenting faction. They sought to destabilize the existing order by offering funds to those who would supplant them—”

Ugh, the more I drink this tea, the more bitter it becomes. Disgusting.

Sipping it slowly only seems to intensify the bitterness, so I just set the cup down.

What were we talking about again?

“…Minister. Our Merchant’s Guild is absolutely…!”

Whatever it is, it sounds like a long story, and I don’t think I can stomach any more of this tea. I decided to ask for a fresh pot.

“Cedric.”

“Yes.”

At my call, Cedric, the Guild President Heizen’s secretary-slash-guard(?) approached with the tea pot.

“What?!”

He’s awfully surprised.

Ah.

Was I not supposed to mention that?

Eh, it was going to come out eventually anyway.

I decided to just think of it that way, and had him fill my cup with the new tea.

—

Unlike the Owls, who live by the motto of ‘kill them all and leave no witnesses, so it’s definitely an assassination,’ the Shaper Clan were, in a way, the most mundane of assassins.

They weren’t like those crazed owls from somewhere, who were absurdly strong for assassins and even enjoyed a good frontal assault.

When a Shaper Clan assassin was assigned a target, they’d infiltrate the target’s group, organization, or association.

Then, they’d spend a long time building familiarity with the target, before killing them at the most opportune moment.

“So, the Shaper Clan has a high success rate, but they also take a long time and their combat skills are worthless. Within the clan, I was nearly a mutant.”

Waking up from his slumber, the Minister propped his chin up with a listless expression, looking down at the representatives of the Shaper Clan who were kneeling on the living room floor, their heads bowed, and asked.

“And it was because of those ‘worthless’ combat skills that your clan faced extinction?”

“Aye. They got their hides tanned by some upstart mercenary band called Marduk. Seems they tried to assassinate its leader.”

Of course, the Shaper clan never engaged in foolhardy ventures like head-on fights.

Yet, somehow, Marduk knew the location of the Shaper clan’s main base, and the assassins, with their pathetic combat skills, were crushed in the mercenary company’s ambush, unable to mount any real resistance.

“Most of the clan was wiped out, and my parents, the previous heads, died, so my brother became the head. But without any other option, he agonized and finally came to find me. Shamelessly, I might add.”

Despite the blatant sarcasm, Cedric and the Shaper clan showed no reaction.

Because it was the truth.

“Hmm.”

“What to do? Should I just kill them all?”

At Christina’s words, devoid of any jest, Cedric, representing the clan, flinched and carefully spoke while still bowing his head.

“While it was under the previous clan head, we do not deny attempting to assassinate His Imperial Majesty. It is only natural that you do not trust us. Therefore, the Shaper clan wishes to demonstrate our loyalty to you, Minister, not merely with words, but through direct action.”

As Cedric reached into his robes to retrieve something, Christina reacted with lightning speed, grabbing his wrist.

“Hold still. I’ll check it first.”

Christina pulled out what Cedric had been trying to retrieve.

It was a magical contract scroll.

A type that was absolutely forbidden for use within the Empire.

“…A slave contract?”

At the Minister’s murmur after receiving the scroll, Cedric’s head bowed lower, as if trying to burrow into the floor.

“Yes. We offer you the lives of all surviving members of the clan, men, women, and children, without exception.”

Next to each name on the scroll were the person’s gender and age, and among them were newborn infants and elderly people with little time left.

Peeking at the scroll from the side, Christina realized just how far they had been driven into a corner.

‘The Empire forbids slavery, but the Minister is an Archduke, so I suppose it doesn’t matter.’

Meanwhile, the Minister, with his still-indifferent expression, continued to read through the scroll, this time posing a direct question to Cedric.

“This does not provide a basis for why you would be of any help to me. How will you prove your usefulness?”

Cedric replied as if he had been waiting for the question.

“My clan, including myself, has long planted people in various places, such as the Merchant Guild, imperial nobles, anti-noble factions, and the underworld. If we utilize this, we can undoubtedly assist you, Minister.”

For the first time, a spark of interest flickered in the Minister’s eyes.